


Waking Old Dogs

by shadowsamurai



Category: New Tricks, Waking the Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst, Drama, Explicit Language, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Mild Language, Romance, Subtext
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-24
Updated: 2012-06-26
Packaged: 2017-11-08 11:00:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 48,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/442495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowsamurai/pseuds/shadowsamurai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A difficult old cold case requires the efforts of not one team, but two.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mergings

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers up to and including Season 6 (but before Season 7) for Waking the Dead, and Season 4 (but before Season 5) for New Tricks.
> 
> AU because both WtD and NT do the same job, just in slightly different ways, and so couldn't really co-exist. But I've always wondered what would happen if you could put the two together…so I did! And in order to make this happen, I cheated. WtD have offices in the Metropolitan Police building in West London, NT in East London. Not geographically correct, but never mind. Also, any street names or places mentioned have just come off the top of my head.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, I'm just borrowing things for a while and I promise I'll put everything back exactly how I found it when I've finished. Well, almost exactly how I found it. ;)

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Sandra walked into the Metropolitan Police building in East London with a frown on her face, and it was only eight in the morning. Officers moved from her path quickly, having learnt that moving was the only option where survival was guaranteed.

Detective Superintendent Pullman didn't need an excuse to be pissed off; it was Monday morning, wasn't that a good enough reason? But there was actually a cause for her bad temper. DAC Strickland had called her over the weekend and insisted that she be in the office early - which was shit, really, because Monday was actually supposed to be her half day, so that her hours balanced. Sandra had always had a soft spot for 'half days'. Until Strickland.

Superintendent Pullman finally reached the cold case offices and made to push the doors open. But they wouldn't budge. Glaring at the doors, as if that would help, she tried again. Nothing. Time for something a little less subtle. Taking a step back, Sandra aimed and kicked the doors. They won, and remained closed.

Sandra screamed and stamped her foot, which caused the heel on her shoe to break, which caused her to fall over. As she lay in the corridor, not caring who saw her, Superintendent Pullman didn't think the day could get any worse.

"Tired, Superintendent?" a voice asked, and Sandra wished the floor would swallow her up then and there.

"No, sir," she replied, getting up. "I fell over."

DAC Strickland looked at her unblinkingly. "Right," he said, his tone conveying his disbelief at her reasoning.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Sandra asked, her tone bordering on Arctic. Since the revelations about her father a few months ago, the Superintendent had found that her whole working dynamic had changed. Her superior officer had changed from being someone she could work with to someone she wanted to punch; her colleague with the photographic memory - what else did he know that he hadn't told her? And her mentor…. As irrational as it sounded - and Sandra knew it was irrational - she blamed for what happened to her father.

"Yes, I did." Strickland began walking down the corridor and Sandra fell into step beside him. "Your offices have been moved."

"What, again?" she replied incredulously without thinking. "What for this time? Or were we using premium space?"

"It's a temporary measure, Superintendent," Strickland said in a somewhat oily voice. "The sprinkler system in the ceiling sprung a leak. It should be fixed soon."

Sandra appeared mollified, for the moment at least. "Right. So where can I find my desk? Sir."

"The Metropolitan Police building in West London."

Sandra stopped. *"What?"*

"I needn't remind you, Superintendent, that I am your superior officer."

There was something in the way Strickland said 'superior' that made Sandra's violent tendencies want to erupt. "Yes, sir. Sorry, sir," she said through gritted teeth.

"As I was saying, your desk, along with your colleagues', is in the cold case offices in the Metropolitan building in West London."

"Are you merging us, sir?" Sandra asked, though she was afraid of the answer. She had heard of the other unit, of course; their success rate was greater than her own unit only because they had been operational for two years longer.

"Temporarily. A case has also come to light that the commissioner and I agree would benefit from both teams' expertise."

Sandra kept her expression blank, but inwardly she was rolling her eyes. *'God, if I ever start talking like that, shoot me, she thought to herself. Why the hell can't he just say what he means?'* "You want us to work together on a case, sir," she reiterated. "While our offices are being restored."

Strickland smiled thinly. "Exactly. You're expected there any time, though sooner would be preferable to later. Don't forget to inform your team of the change. I don't want them to see this as a chance to 'skive off'."

"Yes, sir," Sandra said through gritted teeth again, watching as Strickland disappeared into his office. She then stalked away, counting to ten and passing through two sets of double doors before starting to swear violently.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"That's it, I'm off," Eve said after Boyd had gestured wildly for the fifth time.

"I don't blame you," Grace muttered. As soon as she had seen Boyd tense when he answered the phone, she knew something bad was about to happen.

"It looks serious," Stella said after Eve had disappeared.

"Girlfriend?" Spencer guessed, but Grace shook her head.

"He wouldn't talk to her over the speaker phone. He's odd like that."

Spencer turned to look at Grace, and then Stella. "Have either of you noticed how he hardly talks about her any more? They've only been dating a few months. He can't have messed it up already…can he?"

Grace made a suddenly shushing motion and Spencer turned around again to see Boyd striding towards his office door. "Five pounds says he almost rips it off its hinges," Stella said quickly.

"Ten says he actually does," Spencer replied, taking in his boss's expression.

"Right!" Boyd said in a loud voice, having almost taken the door off its hinges. "Where's Eve?"

Grace shrugged. "In the lab. Working, I suppose."

"Well get her in here, Grace," Boyd said impatiently. "This affects all of us." The two doctors reappeared moments later, and by the look on Eve's face, she had been warned of the Superintendent's foul mood. "Right. I've just been on the phone with the commissioner."

"How is he?" Spencer asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"He'll be fine as long as he stays away from me."

"Oh dear. That bad?" Grace asked.

Boyd nodded. "That bad. We're *temporarily* being merged with the other cold case squad."

It was clear by the way he said 'temporarily' that Boyd didn't believe that was the case. "Temporarily?" Stella repeated, frowning, but Grace caught the way Boyd's eyes glinted dangerously and she quickly interrupted.

"Would that be the team from East London?" she asked.

"How many other cold case units do you know, Grace?"

"There's no need to take that tone with me, Boyd, I was just asking."

Boyd sighed. "Yes, it is the team from East London. Leading officer is Detective Superintendent Pullman."

"Another superintendent? Who's going to be in charge, then?" Spencer asked.

Boyd looked at his team. "Nothing changes. I will be in charge of you and Pullman will be in charge of her team."

Everyone's ears picked up at that word. "Her?" Stella repeated, her eyes widening slightly.

"Their superintendent is a woman?" Spencer grinned. "Oh, this should be fun."

Boyd looked as though he was about to explode, but instead of yelling like he usually did, he just turned on his heel, strode back to his office and slammed his door shut. "Right, while I'm glad he didn't shout, that can't be good," Eve said.

Grace frowned deeply and tapped her finger against her chin. "No, it isn't."

"Shouldn't you go in there?" Stella suggested.

"Why do I always get picked on to go and placate the tyrant?"

"Because you're the only one he'll listen to," Spencer replied.

"That hasn't been working too well recently, has it?" There was a hint of bitterness in Grace's voice that wasn't missed by anyone.

The phone rang and Spencer reached across his desk to pick it up. "Yeah?… Okay…okay, thanks." He put the receiver down, placed his elbows on the desk and rested his chin on his hands. "They're here."

All eyes turned to Grace. "Alright, alright," she said, throwing her hands up in the air. "I'm going!"

TBC


	2. Warnings

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"He wants us to *what*?" Jack said incredulously.

"He's lost his bloody marbles," Brian grumbled as he shifted in the back seat.

"Don't think Strickland ever had any," Gerry added.

"Look, it's only temporary," Sandra said, trying to be the voice of reason.

Gerry gave a short laugh. "Yeah, right!"

"What's the case, anyway?" Brian asked.

Sandra shrugged, glancing in her rear view mirror before she overtook a car. "Strickland didn't say. I'm assuming the other team will have all the information."

After leaving the police building, Sandra had phoned her colleagues and told them their half day had been cut short. She had picked them all up, after going home to change her broken shoes, and they were now on their way to West London. No one was happy about it.

"It's all bullshit," Gerry said, not for the first time, shaking his head.

"So you've said," Sandra replied in a tired voice. "Look, guys, we don't have a choice in the matter. We've been ordered to work with this team and that's what we're going to do."

"I don't imagine they'll be too happy about it either," Jack muttered from his place beside Brian, who nodded in agreement.

"I can't imagine anyone that would be. Temporary my arse."

"Why would Strickland say it was temporary if it wasn't?" Sandra asked as she pulled into the car park.

"Because there's no need to two of us, is there?" Jack replied.

Gerry nodded slowly. "You've got a point there, Jack."

Sandra sighed and turned to look at the ex-DS. "Which is?"

"Why does London need two cold case squads? I mean, really, what's the difference between our team and theirs?"

"They're all serving officers," Brian replied. "And they have their own forensic scientist. And a profiler. And…."

"Alright, Brian, I get it," Gerry said hurriedly. "What I was trying to say…."

"Is that one team is all that's necessary; two is a luxury," Jack finished for him. "You know it as well as we do, Sandra. This merge isn't temporary; they're doing it because they want to axe one of us."

"Well, thank you for that upbeat and optimistic outlook on this new development, gentlemen," Sandra said as she got out of the car. "I only hope the other team has sunnier dispositions."

"I wouldn't count on it," Brian muttered.

They crossed the car park, heading to the main office, but before they entered the building, Sandra stopped and turned to look at her team.

"Look, maybe you're right and this is some sort of scheme to shut one team down," she said. "If that is the case, I don't want to give Strickland, and whoever else might be involved, the satisfaction of winning. So I want you all on your best behaviours."

Gerry looked hurt. "Sandra, when have we ever…?"

"You want a list?" she replied flatly and walked through the main doors.

"She's got a point," Brian said as he followed her.

"Unfortunately," Jack muttered.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

As soon as Boyd heard the knock on his door, he knew who it was. He also knew that it didn't matter what he did or said, she'd still enter.

"Hi," Grace said, closing the door carefully behind her.

Boyd almost smiled at her predictability. Some things never changed. "What is it, Grace?"

"The other team are here," she told him, not fazed by his attitude.

"Good for them."

"Boyd."

He finally looked up. "What?" he asked flatly.

Grace sighed. "I know what you're thinking - this merge isn't temporary at all. They're looking for a way to shut one of us down, and you think it'll be us."

"We have been referred to as a luxury on more than one occasion," he pointed out.

"True, but six years on and we're still here. Despite our 'problems', Boyd, we have an excellent clear up rate and the commissioner knows that."

"So does the other team."

"You know their work?" Grace asked, slightly surprised.

Boyd smiled thinly. "It's my job."

"So they're good?"

"For retired officers, yeah."

Grace just nodded and they sat in silence for a while. Boyd knew it wouldn't last, though. "Look, Boyd, I'm sure the other team are thinking exactly the same as you are," the profiler started, "so let's not give the commissioner a reason to want to shut us down."

"What you mean is I have to behave myself."

Grace smiled. "Well, yes."

Boyd stared at her for a long time before sighing and dropping his head a little. "Okay, Grace, you win. I'll make an effort."

She beamed at him. "Thank you, Boyd."

"Do the others get a warning as well?"

"I don't know. Do you think they need it?"

"It's only fair, Grace," Boyd said, his tone slightly whiny.

"Life isn't fair, Boyd. Why should this be any different?" Then Grace smiled. "Don't worry, I'll tell them too."

"You're right, it isn't fair," he muttered after the profiler had left. Or he thought she had left.

"And, Boyd, try to be nice to the other team." Grace's head reappeared round his doorway.

"Nice, Grace? I don't do nice."

She regarded him before walking back to the bullpen, calling over her shoulder, "You will if you want to keep working."

TBC


	3. Meetings

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"God, where is this place?" Jack muttered. "The bloody dungeons?"

After being given badges and directions at reception, Sandra and her team embarked on a journey to the centre of the Earth, or so it seemed.

"Maybe we should have stopped and asked for more directions," Gerry said, shaking his head.

"Our offices are a Hilton compared to this," Brian stated dryly, looking around at the dimly lit corridors as they walked.

"Not right now they're not," Sandra murmured. "A-ha!" Her tone was triumphant. "I think this is it." They turned left and went down a few steps, Sandra pushing the double doors open as the others followed her. "Is this the cold case office?"

Boyd turned and looked at the woman who had just entered with three older men in tow. "It is."

There was a moment's silence as both teams studied each other, a tense atmosphere forming quickly. "We're the cold case team from East London. DAC Strickland sent us over. I presume you were told we were on our way?"

Boyd leant against the edge of the nearest desk and folded his arms. "The commissioner mentioned it."

Sandra sighed. This was going to be very hard work indeed. "I'm Detective Superintendent Pullman. This is Jack Halford, Gerry Standing and Brian Lane," she said, introducing the members of her team.

"This is DI Spencer Jordan, DC Stella Goodman, Dr. Grace Foley and Dr. Eve Lockhart. I am Detective Superintendent Boyd." Boyd looked at Grace, his face expressionless but his eyes were gleaming. "There, was that alright?"

She nodded. "Perfect."

"Boyd," Brian repeated, frowning. "Peter Boyd, joined the Met in…."

"Brian," Sandra said warningly, drawing a frown and a suspicious glance from Boyd.

"What was he going to say?" He turned to Brian. "What were you going to say?"

"Brian has a photographic memory where police officers records are concerned," Sandra said quickly. "He can recall any detail about anyone who's ever been in the Met."

"Does that include me?" Grace asked with interest.

Brian turned to look at her. "Dr. Grace Foley, psychological profiler, works for the Home Office, but first worked with the Met…." He caught Sandra glaring at him out of the corner of his eye and stopped. "Yes, it does."

"Fascinating," Grace murmured.

"I don't need profiling, thank you very much," Brian replied firmly.

"No, you wouldn't have the time," Jack muttered dryly.

"So, do you have the case material, Superintendent Pullman?" Boyd asked in a mild voice.

*'Does it bloody well look like it?'* she thought, but she just said, "No, I assumed you would have, Superintendent Boyd."

Grace caught the undercurrent between the two of them and couldn't help but roll her eyes. *'This is going to be hard work.'* "Maybe that's the case coming now," she said, pointing to a young police officer walking down the corridor with a box in his hands.

The PC entered the bullpen and almost dropped the box, having been startled by so many people just staring at him. "Erm, this is for the cold case team," he said timidly.

"Which one?" Brian muttered.

"Teams," Boyd corrected him. "Just put it down there. Is that it?"

The PC nodded. "Yes, sir." Understanding that the expression which suddenly appeared on Boyd's face was not a good thing, the officer hurried out the same way he had come before the inevitable fireworks began exploding.

Boyd took the lid off the box and dropped it onto the desk. "If this is someone's idea of a joke, I may lose my temper," he said quietly.

"What?" Sandra asked, quickly crossing to his side. "Oh, shit."

The two teams waited expectantly as their bosses both stared downwards. Finally Boyd turned, and he was holding two items. "This is what we have to go on; a file and a murder weapon."

"And a thin file at that," Gerry noted. "What's in there? One sheet of paper?"

Boyd just handed the file to Sandra and the weapon to Eve. "You have got to be joking," Sandra said as she looked through the notes.

Boyd looked at her. "What is it?"

Sandra held up a sheet of paper. "A confession."

"They've given us a closed case?" Jack asked, frowning in confusion.

Grace sighed. "Apparently it's open again."

"On what grounds?" Brian asked.

"I think that's something we have to discover along the way," Boyd replied, smiling slightly.

"Well, I suppose we'd better get started." Sandra's unenthusiastic tone of voice summed up how everyone felt, but as it was their jobs at stake, they had no choice but to play the game, following the unspoken rules set down by the commissioner and the DAC.

TBC


	4. Musings

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"So which desk is mine?" Brian asked, looking around.

Boyd shrugged. "Any. Except those two." He pointed to Stella and Spencer's desks.

"Right." Brian walked to a table and sat behind it. "Nobody touch anything on here, or I'll know."

"Erm, there's nothing on it. Sir," Stella said, frowning.

Sandra quickly intervened. "There will be soon, and for the sake of peace and quiet while we're working, just…don't go near Brian's desk. Please."

"I'll get to work on this," Eve said to Boyd, holding the bag up with the murder weapon in and heading off through the double doors towards the lab.

"I suppose this'll be my desk, then." Jack leant against a table to the right of Brian, while Gerry went and stood on Brian's left.

"I'll have this one. There's writing on it. Stop me getting bored."

Sandra rolled her eyes. "Great. Where am I supposed to work?"

Grace looked pointedly at Boyd and indicated his office subtly with a nod of her head. "You can work in my office," Boyd said, somewhat flatly.

Sandra looked slightly surprised. "Right. Thanks."

Boyd headed towards his office, with Sandra in tow, and the two of them began rearranging furniture. Gerry turned to Jack. "She's still pissed at you, isn't she?"

"Is there a problem?" Grace asked politely.

Jack turned and scowled. "No, there isn't, thank you." He then glared at Gerry. "And you should keep your mouth shut."

Gerry held his hands up in surrender. "Alright, I was just asking."

"Well don't."

"I think that answers your question anyway, Gerry," Brian said quietly.

"Oh, shut up, the pair of you," Jack snapped irritably.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"So, did you know your team before you started working with them in the cold case unit?" Boyd asked as they moved a table, trying to make an effort, though really he just wanted to yell at somebody.

"Just Jack," Sandra replied after a pause.

"Did you serve under him or…?"

"I should warn you that Brian has some…peculiar tendencies," Sandra interrupted him. "He's a good officer, or was, but it may take you a while to get used to him."

Boyd smiled. "Noted. What about the other two?"

"Gerry has yet to grow up. And he's an incurable flirt."

"And…Jack, was it?"

Sandra put her jacket on the back of her chair and headed towards the office door. "Let's go and get what information we have up on the board."

Boyd stared at her retreating back, unused to being ignored like that. He followed her out, fully intent on yelling like he normally did - and really wanted to - but Grace caught his eye, and while her expression was the same as it always was, he remembered her earlier warning. Biting his tongue, he turned to Sandra.

"Superintendent Pullman, since you have the file, would you be kind enough to write up on the board what information we have to work with?" he asked, smiling.

Spencer stared at Boyd. "You feeling alright, boss?"

"Spence."

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

Spencer looked at Stella. "Yeah, he's okay."

Stella grinned and ducked her head quickly, but not quickly enough. "Stella, I think everyone would like some coffee," Boyd said, the same forced smile still stuck on his face.

The DC scowled but did as she was told. "Ooo, lovely, thanks," Gerry said when she handed him a mug.

"Thanks," Jack replied.

Brian shook his head. "Not for me, ta."

"Thanks, Stella," Grace said, smiling at the DC and wrapping her hands around her mug, absorbing the warmth as though it would help dispel the tension in the room.

Spencer grinned. "Cheers."

Boyd nodded and accepted his mug with one hand. "Thanks."

Sandra's face was expressionless, but her team knew she was a second away from exploding. "Are we ready to begin now? Or do you want to hand out biscuits as well?"

The comment was directed at Boyd, and while Stella and Spencer were trying not to laugh, Grace was getting ready to intervene. But to her surprise, Boyd gave a genuine smile. "No, I'm all out of biscuits today. Please, carry on." He was too busy looking at Sandra to notice Grace's shocked expression.

"Right." Sandra picked up the pen, turned to the board and glanced at the file. "On Friday sixteenth, February 1990, a disturbance was reported at number seventeen Winchester Road at around two pm, but apparently, this was nothing new, so no one went to investigate. However, police received another call some hours later and the caller said that there was no sound at all coming from the house, which *was* unusual."

"Was the caller a neighbour?" Stella asked.

"The caller was never identified," Sandra replied. "When police arrived at the house, no one answered the door. An officer went around the back, looked through the kitchen window and saw a body on the floor."

The doors opened and everyone turned to see who had entered the bullpen. "Sorry, didn't mean to disturb you," Eve said. She headed to the coffee machine, poured herself a cup and perched next to Grace.

"The officers broke the door down and found Michelle Greene dead in the kitchen," Sandra continued. "Her husband, Bruce, was found half way up the stairs, also dead. Now according to this report, there was no forced entry, nothing appeared to have been stolen, and there was no evidence at all."

"Nothing?" Spencer asked, surprised.

Sandra shook her head. "No fingerprints, footprints, DNA, nothing. Not even the murder weapon."

"Where was the weapon found then?" Brian asked.

"The person who confessed to the murders brought it in."

Boyd whistled and walked across to the board, taking the report from Sandra. "Jake Rawley, born second of June 1970. Apparently he walked into the police station three days after the murders, produced the weapon and confessed all."

"So he would have been twenty at the time," Grace said.

"Nineteen," Jack corrected. "He still had four months to go before his birthday."

"Hmm."

Boyd looked at his profiler. "Grace?"

"I was just thinking that's a young age for someone to confess to murder. Is there a psychological profile in there?"

Sandra flicked through the file and pulled out a sheet of paper. "According to this, he's as sane as we are," she said, scanning it quickly. "Well, except for Brian."

Gerry chortled. "She got you there, mate."

Brian looked affronted. "There is nothing wrong with my state of mind, thank you very much."

"Nothing right with it, either," Jack muttered.

"So long as you keep taking your pills," Sandra said at the same time.

"May I?" Grace asked, stretching her arm out.

"Sure." Sandra handed her the profile.

 

Boyd turned to Eve. "What about the weapon?"

All eyes turned to the scientist. "Standard switchblade knife, can be bought any where. The only prints on it were Jake Rawley's. The blood on the blade matched Bruce and Michelle Greene's, and that's all I've got for you at the moment."

"Okay, let me get this straight," Gerry said, holding his hand up. "We've got a confession, a murder weapon with the convicted man's prints on it and the victims' blood." He marked the points off on his fingers. "Why are we investigating this case again? And why does it need two teams?"

Sandra glared at Gerry and then looked at everyone else in the room, noticing Boyd doing the same. Neither Superintendent had an answer, or neither wanted to give one. "I think what we need," Grace said, attempting to break the stalemate, "is a place to start."

Eve stood up. "I'll head back to the lab."

Grace waved the psychological profile in the air. "I'll study this."

Everyone else looked at each other again. "I'll make more coffee," Stella volunteered.

TBC


	5. Understandings

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Copies of the case notes were made and the teams dissipated to various parts of the office to study them. There was silence as they all read, but it was an uncomfortable one, and tangible too, the kind that one would need a sledgehammer to break.

Lunch time arrived and went again without incident as everyone was surviving on a diet of coffee. At some point it had started raining, a fact which would have passed both teams by if Gerry hadn't gone out for a cigarette.

"Bloody hell," he grumbled as he re-entered the office. "Don't you have a smoker's corner here?"

Spencer looked amused. "Nope. It's part of the health and safety scheme."

"You're joking."

"Sorry," Spencer replied, shaking his head.

"What a load of crap."

"Gerry," Sandra called threateningly from Boyd's office.

"I think I'll go and see if Dr. Lockhart has found anything." He shuffled off towards the lab.

"I take it you have to keep him on a short lease?" Boyd asked.

Sandra rolled her eyes. "You have no idea."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Eve looked up when she heard the lab doors open. "White coat."

Gerry looked confused. "Huh?"

"Put a white coat on before you come in."

"Oh right."

"Can I help you?" Eve asked.

"Just having a wander."

"Bored?"

"A little."

"Smoker?"

"Yeah. How'd you guess?"

"I'm a forensic scientist. I'm paid to notice things." Eve then grinned. "Besides, your packet of cigarettes is sticking out of your pocket."

Gerry looked down to see she was right. "That's cheating."

"And?"

Gerry opened his mouth to make a retort but then closed it again. He didn't know her, and lately, his charm on women hadn't been working so well. "Isn't there anywhere to smoke around here?" he asked grumpily.

"Outside?" Eve replied innocently.

"In the pissing rain? I don't think so."

"In that case, you'll have to smoke in here."

Gerry looked at her incredulously. "This is a lab. You'd have my bollocks if I smoked in here."

Eve pulled out her cigarettes, went to stand next to the extractor, and lit up. "Not really."

Gerry's face brightened immediately, and he looked like a kid on Christmas morning. "I think you've just become my new best friend."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"If he's not back in another half an hour, we'll send a search party," Jack said to Brian.

"He's probably trying to get the Standing charm back up," Brian replied.

Spencer barked a laugh but covered it with a cough. Stella, however, looked confused. "I don't understand how you get charm 'back up'."

"Ah, never mind," Jack said, smiling at her.

"Were your ears burning?" Brian asked as Gerry walked back in the room.

"Why? Were you talking about me?" he replied, grinning.

Jack stared at him. "Why do you look so smug?"

"I found a place to smoke."

Spencer and Stella looked at each other. "Eve."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Grace finished the profile and pushed her chair back from her desk. She paused outside her office to look at those working in the bullpen. "Okay?"

Everyone nodded vaguely, and Grace continued her journey to Boyd's - no, the Superintendents' - office, but she stopped just outside the doorway. It wouldn't be polite to barge in now Boyd wasn't alone.

Suddenly two cries of frustration erupted from the room, and the sound of two…somethings could be heard flying through the air.

'*Good job I* didn't *walk in*,' Grace thought in amusement. "I take it things aren't going well?" she asked mildly.

"You could say that," Sandra replied, and then she looked at Boyd. "Sorry."

"It's okay. You missed me."

"You missed me too."

Both Superintendents had reached the end of their tethers at the same time, and simultaneous throwing of files had occurred. Unfortunately, they had thrown them across the office…which meant they had thrown them at each other.

Sandra suddenly started laughing and Boyd soon joined her. "Right, that's it." He stood up and walked out of his office. "Someone grab Eve. We're off to the pub."

"But it's not the end of the day yet, sir," Stella pointed out.

"Listen, when the boss says it's time for the pub, it's time for the pub," Gerry told her, rubbing his hands together. "I'll fetch the doctor."

"Early finish, guys," Sandra said to Brian and Jack.

"Will the commissioner mind?" Grace asked Boyd.

Boyd attempted to look innocent. "Of course not. We need to eat, since we all skipped lunch, and if he complains, I'll just say that we are bonding with our new colleagues in order to produce a conducive working environment so we can solve this case quickly and efficiently."

Sandra stared at him and then looked Grace. "Does he always talk like that?"

"No," the profiler replied, smiling.

"Thank God."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Here you go, sirs," Stella said, handing Gerry and Brian their drinks.

Gerry shook his head. "Hang on. I think we need to get a few things straight here. We," he pointed to himself, Jack and Brian, "are retired, which means that you don't need to call us 'sir'. I'm Gerry, he's Jack, and he's Brian. Okay?" He looked at Stella and Spencer.

"In that case, Gerry, I'm Spence," the DI replied, holding his hand out, and they shook.

"I'm Grace," the profiler said and gave a little wave.

The scientist held her glass up. "Eve."

The DC smiled shyly. "Stella."

"I feel like I'm at the POA or something," Sandra said dryly to Boyd.

"POA?"

"Police Officers Anonymous. Though we're not so anonymous now."

He smiled. "There is one problem - what do we call each other? I don't know about you, but saying 'Superintendent' all the time is going to get on my nerves."

"Well, those that like me call me Sandra. I won't tell you what the ones that don't like me call me."

"I could probably guess," Boyd replied. "I'm Boyd." They shook hands.

"Nice to meet you, Superintendent," Sandra said, grinning.

Boyd deadpanned. "Likewise, Superintendent."

"Well, I'm glad we got that sorted," Brian said.

"Next question - who's in charge?" Spencer asked, too innocently for Grace's liking.

Boyd and Sandra looked at each other, a silent understanding passing quickly between two superior officers. "Both of us," Boyd replied. "But you have to remember that my team is made up of serving officers. They're used to following orders."

"We follow orders too," Gerry said indignantly.

"Unless we know better, of course," Jack added.

Sandra glared at him briefly. "I know we," she gestured to her team, "have our opinions on why we're working with you on this case, but what do you think?"

"The same as you," Grace replied before Boyd had the chance. "That this 'merge' isn't temporary at all; they're looking for a way to shut one of us down."

"The Met doesn't need two 'luxuries'," Jack said. "But both teams have excellent clear up rates, just with different methods. It isn't cut and dry…."

"Which is why they've put us together," Spencer finished for him. "They want to see how we measure up side by side, so to speak."

"So we have to beat the commissioner and the DAC at their own game," Grace said. "Show them that neither team is better than the other, and that we can work together. If they see that one side isn't pulling their weight, that'll be the team to go."

Jack looked at Boyd. "She's good."

Boyd smiled. "Yes, she is. And no, you can't have her."

"Pity," Brian muttered, and everyone started laughing.

TBC


	6. Beginnings

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Sandra was filling her mug with coffee, eager to get stuck into the case properly after their slow start the day before, when Eve bustled in.

"Morning," the scientist said breathlessly.

"Morning. Coffee?"

"Definitely."

Sandra handed her a mug just as her phone rang. "Excuse me a minute." She looked at who was calling and smiled. "Hi…. I'm fine, how are you?… Yeah, everything's okay…. Seriously…. No, don't worry about it…. I don't know what time I'll finish…. Okay, I'll phone you…. Bye."

"I like phone calls that make people smile," Eve stated, looking at the expression on Sandra's face.

"That was Chris."

"Boyfriend?"

Sandra grinned. "Yeah."

Eve smiled. "What does he do?"

"He's an artist."

"How did you meet?"

Sandra was halfway through the tale when Grace arrived, and soon the three of them were laughing loudly. "I'm not sure I want to ask," Jack said to Gerry and Brian as they walked into the office.

"You already know," Grace replied. "How Sandra met Chris."

"Wasn't that a film?" Brian asked seriously.

Eve choked back a laugh. "I think you'll find that was 'When Harry Met Sally'."

Brian looked unimpressed. "Oh."

"I'll be in the lab if anyone needs me," Eve said, exiting the bullpen quickly, her chuckles drifting back through the doors.

"Right, let's get to work, people!" Boyd said loudly as he walked in.

"Morning, Boyd," Grace muttered, shaking her head.

Boyd looked around. "Where's Spence?"

"Right here, boss. Had trouble finding a parking spot." The DI grabbed his breakfast - a large cup of coffee - and sat at his desk.

"Okay, so we've established that this case is a farce," Boyd started. "We've got a confession and a conviction, but if the commissioner and DAC want us to waste our time reinvestigating it, that's what we'll do. Sandra?"

"Thanks." She stood up as Boyd sat down. "I think we should re-interview Jake Rawley, today if that's possible."

"I'll check," Stella said and grabbed the phone.

"I've already spoken to Rawley's lawyer, and he has only ever had one visitor while he's been in prison. A Lee Hopkins."

"Who is he?" Spencer asked.

"She," Sandra corrected. "We don't know, but she's visits Rawley regularly."

"We can see Rawley this morning," Stella announced.

"Okay. Why don't you and…Brian go to see Hopkins," Boyd said to the DC, "and, Spence, you and Sandra interview Rawley. Is that okay with everyone?"

"What will you do?" Sandra asked.

"Try to find some more leads to go on," Boyd replied.

"Okay. Come on, Spence," Sandra said, smiling.

"Brian?" Stella asked timidly.

"I hope you can drive because I bloody well can't," he muttered.

Sandra sighed. "We'll drop you off."

"Don't forget the address," Jack said, handing Brian a piece of paper.

"Have fun," Grace called to them.

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Boyd entered his office, unaware his profiler had followed him, and she startled him when she spoke. "You like her, don't you?" Grace asked, trying to keep a straight face.

"Who?"

"Sandra."

Boyd shrugged. "Yeah, she seems good at her job."

"That's not what I meant."

"What? You think I fancy her, Grace?" Boyd asked, surprised.

"Don't you?" Grace replied, equally surprised.

"No! Why would you even think that?"

"She's your type."

"My type?" Boyd repeated, leaning forward.

"Yes, your type. She's intelligent, strong-willed - or feisty, as you would say -"

"So are Eve and Stella, and Felix and Frankie were, but that doesn't mean I fancy them!" Boyd replied, somewhat heatedly. "I just like feisty, as you put it, women. Like Eve and Stella…and you, Grace, I haven't forgotten about you…."

"And Sarah?" Grace added, her tone of voice half way between a question and a statement.

It was like the shutters of a shop coming down behind Boyd's eyes. His posture became guarded and his voice was flat when he spoke. "That's none of your business, Grace."

The profiler looked taken aback. "I'm sorry, Boyd, I didn't realise she was off-limits for discussion."

"Well now you know."

"Is - everything okay between the two of you?"

"I think that comes under talking about it, Grace, don't you?" Boyd replied, his eyes suddenly dull and almost lifeless.

Grace understood it was time to leave. She nodded and stood, walking to the door, but she hesitated before opening it. "If you need someone to talk to, as a friend, you know where I am."

Boyd managed a faint smile. "I do indeed, Grace. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Five minutes later, Grace's phone rang, and she answered it somewhat distractedly. "Hello?"

"Would you charge me for a session with you?" Boyd asked.

"That depends on what kind of session it was," Grace replied, deliberately keeping her voice neutral and her gaze down. She knew if she glanced across at his office, she wouldn't be able to keep the bubble of laughter down that was threatening to burst forth.

"Grace!" Boyd exclaimed. "You did not just say that!"

"Bet it made you smile, though."

Boyd's smile grew. "Yeah, it did."

"You're welcome," she said, and put the phone down. She counted to twenty, and then dialled his number.

"Yes?"

"A bottle of red wine will do nicely, thank you."

"I think I owe you more than one, Grace," Boyd said quite seriously.

Grace risked a glance to her left, but he had his back to her, a move she thought was intentional. "You're not going all soft on me, are you, Boyd?" she asked cautiously, and saw his shoulders shake once with silent laughter.

"You're not that lucky," he replied, and put the phone down.

Out in the bullpen, Gerry looked at Jack and said, "Did they just phone each other?"

"So what if they did?"

"They work in offices facing each other! Why do they need to use the phone?"

"I don't know and I don't bloody well care," Jack replied, exasperatedly. "Just concentrate on the case."

Gerry looked at his colleague. "Alright, keep your hair on. I'm working, see?"

"Well work faster. We need to find some sort of lead before Sandra comes back or…."

"Yeah, I know, I know, she'll throw a hissy fit. I'm on it."

TBC


	7. Doubts

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"So, how long have you worked in the cold case unit?" Brian asked as he and Stella walked down the road. Sandra and Spencer had dropped them off close to the address of Lee Hopkins, but not right outside the door, a fact that Brian had grumbled about. Sandra, of course, just ignored him.

Stella looked at the retired officer. "You mean you don't know?"

Brian gave her a half-smile. "I'm not so good with the records of new police officers."

"Just over two years."

"Do you enjoy it?"

"It's…different."

"You mean it's enjoyable but Boyd can be difficult to work with," Brian said. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. I'm not a copper any more, remember?"

Stella smiled. "He can be a little unreasonable at times."

"I know, his record says as much."

"What about you? How long have you been back at work?"

Brian hunched his shoulders up as he tried to ward off the chill in the October air. "Just over four years."

"Do you enjoy it?"

He grinned. "Bloody love it."

Stella grinned back. "Okay, this is it." She walked up the path and knocked on the front door.

A few moments later, a woman in her late thirties appeared. She was of medium height, with blue eyes and short brown hair. "Yes?"

"Lee Hopkins?"

"Yes."

"I'm DC Stella Goodman," she said, showing Lee her badge. "This is my colleague, Brian Lane. May we come in?"

"Please do." Lee stepped aside to grant them access to her home.

"Thank you." Stella smiled and entered the house, Brian following her.

"Just go straight ahead to the kitchen," Lee called. "I'm in the middle of cooking, I'm afraid."

"What are you making, Ms. Hopkins?" Brian asked.

"It's Miss, not Ms. I've always hated that term," Lee said. "But you can call me Lee, please."

Brian inclined his head. "Lee."

"Bread. I prefer to make my own when I have the time."

"What do you do?" Stella asked.

"I'm an author, but I write under a pseudonym, so I hope you'll forgive me for not telling you who I am." Lee smiled. "So, how can I help you?"

"We're reinvestigating the Greene murders," Brian said, watching Lee's reaction carefully.

She stopped kneading dough and kept her gaze down. "I see. May I ask why?"

"You have been protesting Jake Rawley's innocence since he was convicted, Miss Hopkins," Stella explained.

"Please, call me Lee." She shook her head. "Why now? It's been nearly twenty years; why take notice of the case now?"

"I'm sorry, we can't say."

Lee finally looked up. "You mean you don't know anything new. This is just a formality, isn't it, because I'm pushing for Jake's release again."

"Can I ask why you're so adamant he didn't do it?" Brian asked.

"I know Jake, Mr Lane," Lee said firmly, looking straight at Brian, "and he is no murderer. He doesn't have it in him."

"Then why did he confess?"

Lee sighed. "That I don't know, Mr Lane. I've asked him many times over the years and he has never told me."

"How long have you known Mr Rawley?" Stella asked, taking a notebook out.

"Around thirteen or fourteen years. We met at secondary school and quickly became best friends."

Brian was stood with his hands behind his back, rocking slightly on his feet. "Do you know anyone else who would have been friends with Mr Rawley around the time of the murders?"

"I'm sorry, I don't."

"But you're best friends, aren't you?"

Lee smiled. "That doesn't mean I know everyone he hung out with, Mr Lane."

"Miss Hopkins…Lee, is there anything at all you can tell us that would help with our investigation?" Stella asked.

"I'm sorry, no. I told the original investigation everything I knew."

"Has Mr Rawley ever changed his guilty plea?" Brian asked suddenly.

Lee looked at him carefully. "No."

"I see. Thank you for you time, Lee. If you remember anything else, will you call us?" Brian said.

"Of course."

He looked at Stella and then nodded to the counter. The DC put a card down and smiled. "Thank you. We'll show ourselves out."

Once they reached the end of the path, Brian turned to Stella. "That was a bloody waste of time."

Stella sighed. "I agree."

"Come on, let's find a taxi and get back to the office. I'm freezing out here."

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"So, now we're out of the office, is there anything I should know about your team?" Sandra asked as they drove to the prison.

Spencer put his arm against the window. "Boyd likes to shout when things don't go his way, or even if they do; let me rephrase that - Boyd just likes to shout whenever the mood takes him. He's abrasive, impatient, and those are just his good points. He's also got a violent streak the width of the Grand Canyon, but he's a good officer, and he's a good man, underneath it all."

Sandra smiled. "Sounds like we'll get on fine, then. What about the others?"

"Stella can be just as impatient as Boyd, but she has more restraint."

"Because she's younger."

"Eve is a crazy lady. Nice, but crazy."

"How so?"

Spencer turned to look at Sandra. "She has a body farm."

"A what?" Sandra asked in a flat voice, not sure she heard right.

"A body farm. Eve has dead bodies buried about the place, in different types of soil and different ages. She says it helps with her work."

"I think she needs help," Sandra muttered.

"That might be true." Spencer smiled. "Then there's Grace."

"The voice of reason?"

Spencer nodded. "Jack seems to be the same in your team."

"Not always." There was something in Sandra's tone of voice that indicated the conversation was at an end. "We're here," she said after a while.

Spencer followed the Superintendent into the prison and they were shown to an empty room. Moments later, a man was brought in.

"Mr Rawley, I am Detective Superintendent Pullman, this is DI Jordan," Sandra said.

"Pleased to meet you," Jake replied, shaking hands with them.

"Mr Rawley, we're reinvestigating the Greene murders," Sandra explained.

"So I've been told. Can I ask why?"

"There are some…aspects of the original investigation that don't add up."

Jake looked at Sandra, then Spencer, then back to Sandra again. "Like what? I confessed."

"We know, Mr Rawley, but with your lawyer pushing for your release again, we have to make sure that the original case was conclusive," Spencer said.

"You mean you have to make sure they didn't mess it up," Jake replied with a smile.

Sandra smiled back. "Yeah, something like that."

"Well I don't know what else I can tell you that you don't already know. I presume you have the original file, including my confession and the interview records?"

Spencer nodded. "We were interested in your relationship with Ms. Hopkins. Why is she such a big supporter of yours?"

Jake laughed. "Ms. Hopkins? Lee'd go nuts if you called her that." He shook his head. "Lee is my oldest and best friend. We've known each other since we were about thirteen or fourteen. As for why she supports me, I don't know. God knows I don't deserve it."

"Why is that, Mr Rawley?" Sandra asked.

"Because I killed two people, Superintendent. I confessed and now I am serving my time. I have no idea why Lee keeps insisting I'm innocent and pushing for my release. I'm afraid you'll have to ask her if you want an answer."

Sandra and Spencer glanced at each other and they both nodded imperceptibly. "Thanks for your time, Mr Rawley," the DI said. "If you have any more questions, can we come back or should we go through your lawyer?"

Jake laughed again. "You know you should check with him first, but I don't mind. Yes, you can come back and ask your questions. I'm not going anywhere."

"That didn't get us very far, did it?" Sandra said as they walked to the car.

"Nope," Spencer agreed. "Let's hope that Stella and Brian had more luck."

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"ARGH!"

Gerry looked at Jack. "That doesn't sound good."

"No, it doesn't," Jack agreed. They looked up as Eve entered the bullpen, heading towards Boyd's office. "Ah, I wouldn't go in there just yet if I were you. Not unless you've either good news or a suit of armour."

"I am without both, so I'll just go back to the lab," Eve replied, smiling and tiptoeing out of the bullpen again.

"And I thought Sandra was bad when she was pissed," Gerry muttered.

"I'd hate to see them both upset at the same time," Jack said.

Grace opened her door and popped her head out. "Did I hear the lion roar?"

Jack leant back in his chair to look at her. "You did indeed. Is he always like this?"

Grace nodded and ventured out into the bullpen, perching on the edge of Jack's desk. "Most of the time."

"How can you stand it?" Gerry asked.

Grace smiled. "I've developed a very thick skin. I take it we're not getting very far?"

Gerry harrumphed. "That's got to be the understatement of the year, Grace."

"There's just nothing to go on at all," Jack said.

"What about background on Jake Rawley?" Grace asked. "Finding people who knew him at the time of the murders."

"The only person the original investigation came up with was Lee Hopkins," Gerry replied.

"Yes, but they already had a confession, didn't they?" Jack said, leaning forward onto the desk.

Grace turned to see Boyd coming out of his office, and she put a finger to her lips. It was interesting watching the other team working and she knew they were close to making a positive step forward.

"Yeah, that's a point, Jack," Gerry said. "They wouldn't have bothered looking at all the angles because they'd already got their man."

"But is Rawley the right one? I know he's confessed, but there's something not right about all this," Jack replied shaking his head. "It's all too cut and dry for my liking."

"What did his psychological profile say, Grace?" Boyd asked.

"What Sandra said to begin with. Jake Rawley is one of the most rational people I've ever come across."

"So there's nothing to suggest he's a killer," Jack said.

Grace shook her head. "Not necessarily. It just means if he is our killer, he must have had a damn good reason for murdering that couple, and I doubt he would ever have killed again."

"Any luck?" Gerry asked, and everyone turned to see Sandra, Spencer, Stella and Brian walking back in.

"Nothing," Brian said, shaking his head.

"Bugger all," Sandra replied.

"Rawley says he did it and he doesn't know why Lee is adamant he be released. Lee is adamant he's innocent, but doesn't know why he'd confess to something he didn't do," Spencer explained, flopping into his chair.

"I take it you haven't had any luck?" Stella asked.

Gerry shook his head. "Nothing. Grace says Rawley isn't the murdering type, and Eve hasn't found anything else on the murder weapon."

"And all we have are doubts," Jack added.

"Doubts?" Sandra repeated, looking at him for the first time that day.

Jack nodded. "Something about this case doesn't add up already, but we're not sure what it is."

"Okay, people, we need to start at the beginning," Boyd said, moving to the board. "Strip the case back to its basics. Redo everything. The original investigation was not conclusive at all; they didn't bother looking at other angles because they had a confession. I want you to find everything you can about Jake Rawley and Lee Hopkins."

Stella was studying the case notes. "It has the name of the school that Rawley and Hopkins attended here. Maybe we should start there?"

Boyd smiled at her. "Good idea, Stella. Sandra, would you like to accompany me?" He didn't dare look at Grace, but she knew he was winding her up.

"I've only just come back," Sandra protested.

"I'll buy you lunch."

She pretended to think about it, then grinned. "Okay, you're on."

"Address?" Boyd called as he grabbed his jacket from his office. Stella handed it to him. "Don't work too hard, kids!"

"Right, who's for a pub lunch?" Gerry asked as soon as Boyd and Sandra had left.

"Shouldn't we stay and work?" Stella replied uncertainly.

Gerry shrugged, his eyes twinkling. "When the cat's away…."

"We all go to the pub," Spencer finished, grinning. "I'm there."

"I'll get Eve," Gerry said.

Grace looked at Jack. "Are you going?"

"Someone's got to keep an eye on them," he replied with a straight face.

"Of course. Very responsible of you."

"Thank you."

"Would you like some help in that department?"

Jack looked at Spencer attempting to tickle Stella, Brian being…well, Brian, and Gerry and Eve laughing as they entered the bullpen. "I think I might need it," he said with a sigh.

TBC


	8. Clues

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"You have a very capable team," Sandra said, enjoying being driven for once instead of being the one doing the driving.

"Thank you," Boyd replied. "I have to admit, I've never been more impressed with retired officers."

Sandra propped her arm up against the door, leant her head on her hand and rolled her eyes. "God, listen to us. We only known each other a couple of days, the case hasn't even started properly yet, and we're already giving out compliments. It's not normal."

"You're right, it's not. Would you prefer it if I shouted?"

"Only if I can insult you."

Boyd laughed. "I think we'll get along just fine."

"I never doubted it," Sandra replied. "You know the others are probably in the pub right now, don't you?"

Boyd shook his head. "Grace wouldn't allow it."

"You'd be surprised how persuasive retired officers can be."

"I guess we still have a lot to learn about each other."

"Yes, we do."

"Will you tell me the story of how you met your boyfriend?" Boyd asked, having heard part of the tale from Grace.

"If you'll tell me how you met your girlfriend," Sandra replied, also having heard part of the tale from Grace.

"In that case, I'll go first. It's not exactly a happy story in parts."

By the time they reached High End Secondary School, Sandra was beginning to rethink her team dynamics. Having heard how Boyd had lost Mel made Sandra realise that she could lose Gerry, Brian or Jack at any time, especially considering the situations the insisted on getting themselves into. They had yet to realise, or accept, that they weren't young men any more. She thought again about the situation with Jack, but even though she knew she was being somewhat irrational, forgiving him for his omission about her father wasn't an option yet, and may never be.

Boyd was a perfect gentleman and allowed Sandra to enter the school first. Pupils were running around, yelling and laughing as only children and young people can. The receptionist smiled as they gave her their names, and she showed them to the head's office.

"Good afternoon. I'm Headmaster Paul Phillips. How may I help you?" the head asked them.

"I am Superintendent Boyd and this is Superintendent Pullman," Boyd replied. "Thank you for seeing us on such short notice."

Phillips smiled. "Anything to help the officers of the law."

"We're interested in two students who attended this school between 1981 and 1986. Would you be familiar with that era?" Sandra asked.

Phillips' smile grew into a grin. "Yes, I would. I've been at this school for a very long time. Tea?"

"Thank you," Sandra said.

Boyd held his hand up. "Not for me."

"I was just a maths teacher back then. I came here in 1983; it was only my second job. Who are you interested in?"

"Jake Rawley and Lee Hopkins to start with," Boyd said.

Phillips stopped halfway through pouring tea. "I see the names are familiar to you," Sandra stated.

"Yes, they are. We were all shocked when Jake was arrested for those murders," Phillips replied, sitting behind his desk.

"What can you tell us about them, Mr Phillips?" Boyd asked, walking slowly around the room, looking at the photos.

"Jake was a pleasure to teach, and it's not very often a teacher can say that these days," the head began. "He was polite, a little shy, and was never in any trouble."

"What, at all?" Sandra said, surprised.

Phillips shook his head. "As far as I can remember, he never had so much as a detention."

"What about Lee Hopkins?" Boyd asked, stopping at the class photo of '84.

"She was pretty much the same, although with a mischievous streak a mile wide," Phillips replied, smiling. "And she was a bad influence on her friends." He shook his head and gave a small laugh. "The four of them were so much trouble at times, but they always managed to worm their way out of any punishment."

Boyd's head whipped round, and he and Sandra stared at each other. "The four of them?" Sandra repeated in confusion.

Phillips frowned. "Yes. Jake, Lee, Karl and Tommy. They were the best of friends while at school. Completely inseparable. I presume they stayed friends afterwards, but I can't say for certain."

Sandra took a deep breath to calm herself, and was surprised to feel Boyd's hand rest lightly on her shoulder as he approached the desk. "I'm afraid this is the first we've heard of the other two, Mr Phillips," he said, sitting down next to Sandra.

"Really? I'm surprised."

"Perhaps you can fill us in on what we don't know," Boyd suggested, smiling slightly.

Phillips leant back in his chair, his hands resting on his midriff. "Jake and Lee were in the same year, and Karl and Tommy were in the year above. It was a surprise, but they all got on very well."

"Do you remember their last names?" Sandra asked.

Phillips nodded. "Karl Morgan and Tommy Draper."

"You don't happen to know where we can find them now, do you?"

"Tommy, no, I'm afraid not. But Karl is easy to find; just go to the local doctor's surgery and ask for Dr. Morgan. Here." The head scribbled the address on a piece of paper and handed it to Sandra.

"Thanks."

"What were they like while they were at school?" Boyd asked.

"As I've said, Jake was the quiet one, Lee was a nuisance but not in a bad way. Karl was the charming one, which is why they never got into trouble."

Sandra tucked the piece of paper into her pocket. "And Tommy?"

Phillips hesitated before answering. "He was a strange one. He never seemed to fit into the group."

Boyd frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Tommy wasn't charming or particularly bright or mischievous, he just…was. I often wondered how he and the other three became, and stayed, friends."

"Thank you, Mr Phillips." Sandra and Boyd stood to leave. "If you remember anything else, please let us know." Boyd put a card on the table and ushered Sandra out of the office.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Eve entered the bullpen with a smile on her face. "Is Boyd back?"

"Not yet," Grace called from her office. "Why?"

After an hour at the pub, both teams agreed they should get back to work, although they had achieved sod all since returning to the office.

"I think I might have something."

Grace came out, her glasses held loosely in one hand. "Ooo, what?"

"Come in to the lab and I'll show you," Eve said.

"Can we come too?" Brian asked.

Eve smiled. "Of course. The more the merrier. Just make sure someone leaves a note for the bosses so they don't think we're still at the pub."

A few moments later, and seven people were crowded around Eve's computer. "Hang on, let me put my glasses on," Brian muttered. "Can't see from back here."

"This certainly is cosy," Jack commented.

"At least we won't get cold," Spencer said with a smile. "Okay, what've you got, Eve?"

"Who died and made you Boyd?" Stella asked, receiving a mock-glare from the DI in reply.

"Right, I've done some thorough tests on the knife," Eve started, commanding everyone's attention. "I've identified blood from both the victims, fingerprints from the attacker, and something else."

"Something else?" Brian asked, frowning. "Like what?"

"I'm not sure. Well, I'm sure but…." Eve sighed. "It's complicated."

Jack smiled. "Try us."

"It's blood."

"And?" Gerry said.

Eve glared at him. "And it isn't the victims', but it could be the attacker's. The problem is I don't have any DNA from him."

"Wasn't any taken?" Grace asked.

"No, only fingerprints."

"So we need DNA from Jake Rawley to either eliminate him or confirm he was there," Spencer said.

Eve made a non-committal noise. "If it *is* Rawley's blood, it still doesn't mean he was there. The murder weapon wasn't at the scene of the crime; he brought it to the police station three days later. That's three days where the knife could have been contaminated in all manner of ways."

"So - we don't actually know any more than we did before we came in here," Brian stated.

"No, it would appear not," Jack replied.

Eve pouted slightly. "I thought it was interesting."

Spencer clapped her on the shoulder and nodded. "Only you, though."

"Thanks," Eve muttered as everyone filed out. "Does someone else want to tell Boyd, then?" she called as an afterthought.

Everyone turned to Grace. "Looks like that will be my job."

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When Boyd and Sandra returned to the office, they shared what they had learnt and Boyd disappeared to the lab to see Eve about the mystery blood on the blade, after Grace had delivered the news in her usually tactful way. Stella and Spencer ran checks on Dr. Karl Morgan, while Gerry, Brian and Jack tried to track down Tommy Draper. Grace started putting together a rough psychological profile on Lee Hopkins, based on what Stella and Brian had told her, and Sandra spent a lot of time staring at the board, trying to work out a connection between the Greenes and Jake Rawley.

When the time to go home came around, everyone sighed in relief, and a lot of yawning and stretching ensued. "Who's for the pub? I'll buy the first round," Gerry offered.

"You'll what?" Brian asked, frowning.

"Right, who are you and what have you done with Gerry Standing?" Jack demanded to know.

"Ha ha, very funny." Gerry opened the double doors and yelled, "Come on, Eve. Pub time."

"Do you ever think about anything else?" Spencer asked.

"Women?" Gerry replied with a grin.

Spencer grinned back. "I like you."

"Thanks. You can buy the second round then." Gerry turned to Sandra. "You coming?"

"Sorry, not tonight. Chris wants to take me out," she said, smiling.

"Okay," Gerry replied, shrugging.

"See you tomorrow." Sandra waved to everyone, receiving a chorus of, "Night," in reply.

Jack held the door open for her. "Enjoy your evening."

She hesitated before saying, "Thanks," and rushing off.

Gerry clapped his hands together. "Right, come on, everyone."

"I'll give it a miss, thanks. See you tomorrow," Boyd said.

Grace looked at him carefully, and grabbed Eve as the scientist passed her. "I'm going to stay for a while," she said quietly, her eyes never leaving Boyd.

Eve followed Grace's gaze and nodded. "Okay. See you tomorrow."

The office seemed strangely quiet with just the two of them present, although Grace was certain Boyd didn't realise she was still there. As she looked around, she smiled at how quickly the two teams had gelled, despite their initial discomfort around each other. Grace gave it a reasonable amount of time before heading to Boyd's office with a bottle of wine and two glasses.

"You are planning on going home tonight, aren't you?" she asked as she sat on his couch.

"At some point," he replied, seemingly unsurprised by her presence.

"Would you like a drink?"

"Not tonight, Grace."

Grace frowned. That was definitely not like Boyd. "Do you want to talk?"

"No."

Grace bit her bottom lip slightly. "Do you want me to go?"

Boyd sighed heavily. "It doesn't matter what I want, Grace."

"Boyd, has something happened?"

"Not yet."

"Now I'm confused."

He sighed again. "It doesn't matter, Grace."

"Is it to do with the subject I'm not allowed to talk about?" she asked gently.

"Maybe."

Grace nodded. "Since I don't know what's going on, and I don't want to know unless you want to tell me," she said hurriedly, "I'll just say this: do whatever is right for you, Boyd."

He finally looked at her and smiled. "Thanks, Grace."

"Any time. Now, are you sure you don't want a drink?"

His smile grew. "Not tonight, but thank you."

Grace nodded. "Okay. In that case, I'm off home. Good night, Boyd."

"Night, Grace."

TBC


	9. Dead Ends

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Okay, who wants to do what?" Sandra asked the next day

"What are the options?" Spencer replied.

"Someone needs to go and see Jake Rawley and Lee Hopkins again, and someone needs to see Karl Morgan."

"*Dr*. Karl Morgan," Jack corrected.

"Oh, can't forget that," Gerry muttered while Brian chuckled.

Sandra glared at them. "Thank you."

"Well, I wouldn't mind getting out of the office for a while today," Grace said.

"I'll stay here, if it's all the same with everyone else," Brian offered.

Sandra nodded. "Okay." She looked at Jack, Gerry, Spencer and Stella. "What about you?"

"Well, I think you, Boyd and Grace should go and see Dr. Morgan," Spencer suggested. "And us four can draw straws to see who gets to visit Rawley and who gets to visit Hopkins."

"Such a sophisticated system, Spence," Boyd said sarcastically.

Spencer shrugged. "Seemed like a good idea to me."

Boyd shook his head. "Grace, Sandra and I will interview Morgan, you and Stella go to see Hopkins again, and Jack and Gerry can take Rawley. That okay with everyone?" Various affirmative replies were given. "Good. Shall we get to work, then?"

"What do you want me to do?" Brian asked as everyone started to leave.

"Try and track Tommy Draper," Sandra yelled. "And anyone else who might be helpful to our enquiries!"

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Good morning, Mr Rawley. My name is Jack Halford, this is Gerry Standing. We're reinvestigating the Greene murders," Jack said as Jake entered the room.

"Really? You're the second lot of police officers to visit me this week. I don't know why you're putting so much effort into a closed case."

"Mr Rawley, why didn't you mention Karl Morgan and Tommy Draper when our colleagues interviewed you?" Gerry asked.

Jake blinked in surprise. "There's two names I haven't heard for a while."

"You and Lee Hopkins were close to them when you attended High End Secondary School," Jack said. "And the headmaster has said that you might have continued that friendship once you left school."

"We were close, but the headmaster is wrong," Jake replied. "I haven't seen Karl or Tommy since we left school, that's why I didn't give your colleagues their names."

"You were best friends, Mr Rawley," Gerry said. "What happened to make you stop talking?"

Jake shrugged. "Nothing. We just drifted as we got older. By the time of the murders, the only one I was in touch with was Lee."

"Can you give us the names of any of your friends at the time?" Jack asked.

Jake sighed and leant forward on the table. "Look, I already told the two officers who came to see me before: everything I know, and the names of people I knew, is all in the case file, or they should be."

"That's just it, Mr Rawley," Gerry said. "There are no names in the case file, except for Lee Hopkins."

"Then I don't know what other information I can give you." Jake stood up. "Good day, gentlemen."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Back again?" Lee said as she answered the door and saw Stella and Spencer stood there.

"We just have a few more questions, Miss Hopkins," Stella said.

"Lee, please. And you are?" she asked, looking at Spencer.

"DI Jordan."

"Come in." Lee closed the front door and followed them into the kitchen. "I told you all I know the other day."

"Do the names Karl Morgan and Tommy Draper mean anything to you?" Spencer asked.

"Of course. We were friends at school," Lee replied.

"Why didn't you mention them before?" Stella asked.

"Because you only asked about people Jake knew around the time of the murders. As far as I'm aware, Jake hasn't spoken to Karl or Tommy for years."

"Did you know that Karl Morgan is a doctor at the local surgery?" Spencer asked.

"I did."

"And do you still speak to him?"

"I see him around," Lee replied. "Look, I don't see what this has got to do with Jake."

"Do you know where Tommy Draper is?" Spencer asked, ignoring her comment.

"No, I don't, and I'd like you to leave now. Karl and Tommy have nothing to do with Jake or the murders. Please, leave."

"Damn," Spencer muttered once they were outside.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"I'm afraid I'm rather busy, so I can only give you ten minutes at the most," Karl Morgan greeted them. He was a tall man with blond hair and blue eyes, and an affable nature.

"We understand. Thank you for seeing us anyway," Sandra replied. "I'm Superintendent Pullman; this is Superintendent Boyd and Dr. Foley."

Karl raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Two senior police officers and a psychologist? This is serious."

"How do you know she's a psychologist?" Boyd asked, moving towards Grace as if trying to protect her.

Karl just laughed and looked at Grace. "I know your work, Dr. Foley. Not the kind of thing one needs in every day life as a doctor, but it makes for interesting reading."

Grace inclined her head. "Thank you."

"Now, how can I help you?"

"We reinvestigating the Greene murders for which Jake Rawley was arrested and convicted," Boyd replied.

"I see."

"You knew Jake Rawley," Boyd said.

"Yes, but a long time ago. I was shocked to hear about what happened."

"Were the two of you in contact at the time?" Sandra asked.

Karl shook his head. "We hadn't been for a couple of years. We sort of lost touch when we left school."

"Lee Hopkins," Boyd said.

"What about her?"

"Do you still talk to her?"

Karl shrugged. "I see her around occasionally. We live in the same area; bumping into each other is inevitable."

"And Tommy Draper?" Sandra asked.

"I haven't seen him or heard from him since leaving school either. I'm sorry, but what have Lee, Tommy and I got to do with Jake?"

"The original case was inconclusive," Grace explained, speaking for the first time. "And it's strange that Lee has always protested Jake's innocence, while Jake himself has always maintained that he's guilty."

Karl shrugged again. "They were always very close." He glanced at his watch. "I'm sorry, but I'll have to ask you to leave now. I have a patient due any minute."

"Of course," Sandra said, smiling. "Thank you for your time, and if you remember anything…."

"I'll phone you," Karl finished, accepting the card from Boyd. "Good day." He waited a few minutes before taking his cell phone out and making a quick call.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"That was an utter waste of time," Sandra muttered as they entered the office.

"I take it things didn't go well?" Brian asked.

"Nope," Gerry said, following Jack into the bullpen, Stella and Spencer not far behind them.

"Did you find anything?" Jack asked Brian.

"Not much. Tommy Draper seems to have disappeared off the face of the Earth. I think it's safe to say he's got nothing to do with this case," Brian replied. "Neither Karl Morgan or Lee Hopkins have got any kind of criminal record, and Jake Rawley's only offence is the one he's in prison for."

"Is there any link between any of them and the Greenes?" Stella asked.

Brian shook his head. "Not that I can find."

"This is just great. Strickland and the commissioner are going to love this," Sandra muttered.

"Is there anything to link Karl Morgan to the case, other than the fact he knew Rawley at school?" Jack asked.

Boyd shook his head. "I don't think so."

"I'm not so sure," Grace said.

"Why?"

"Well, there was just something about him. He seemed too calm about things. I think there's something he isn't telling us," she replied.

"Alright, we need to find a link between Rawley and the Greenes, or between Morgan and Hopkins and the Greenes," Boyd said. "Let's forget for the moment that we have a confession; let's imagine this is a fresh case. Yell if you find anything!"

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Days later and things were still no further on. Eve was still trying to identify the third blood sample she had found on the knife, Grace was working on a new profile for Jake Rawley and one for Karl Morgan, and everyone else had dispersed to other parts of the building in search of records or addresses for the parents of their suspects. Sandra had found it odd that the names of Jake's parents were nowhere to be found in the original case file, so she had insisted on going to look for them in the records with the others.

Boyd had taken Sandra's place in front of the board, staring at it as though the answers would just out at him. They were missing something important, that he knew. He just didn't know what they were missing.

He decided to see how Eve was getting along, but hadn't even walked through the doors before she yelled, "Nothing new, Boyd."

He smiled and turned around. "Right."  
Boyd strode into his office just as his phone started to ring. His pushed the door to but it didn't close fully. "Boyd," he said as he put the receiver to his ear. "Hi, how are you?… I'm okay, just working on a murder with another cold case squad." There was a long pause. "They're different…Yes, I know that's diplomatic. I can be sometimes, you know."

Across the hall, Grace was sat in her office listening to the conversation. She wasn't exactly eavesdropping; it's just that there was no one else around so it was very quiet, and Boyd had one of those voices that carried, even when he wasn't shouting.

"I can't, not this weekend." He ran his hand through his hair. "Because we're in the middle of a case. I just told you that!" Boyd swivelled around in his chair. "I wouldn't shout if you listened to what I was saying!"

"Not the right thing to say, Boyd," Grace murmured, cringing and shaking her head.

"What?… This has got nothing to do with her…. I am not fooling myself…. You don't know her!" Boyd said, clearly becoming more agitated. Grace tilted her head to one side, apparently in concentration, but really it was so she could hear the one-sided conversation more clearly. "We're friends, she's one of the only ones I've got, you know that!…Where've you got this idea from?… No, stop right there! You don't get to psychoanalyse me!… That's right, she is the only one allowed to it and you don't like it, tough shit!" Body slammed the phone down and pushed himself away from his desk with force.

As Grace watched him, she knew it was only a matter of time before he exploded and if the wrong person walked in on him now, the consequences would be disastrous. But she didn't particularly want a confrontation with him either. "Better me than anyone else, though," Grace reasoned, and reached for her phone.

"What?" Boyd yelled as he hit the speaker phone button.

"I was just wondering if I should tell Sandra and the others to take an extended lunch break, starting now. You know, until you calm down," Grace said bluntly.

"I'm not in the mood, Grace."

"I can see that," she replied as she watched him pacing agitatedly around his office.

"This isn't the time."

"It never is when you're pissed off, but you can't act like a bear with a sore head right now. The commissioner and the DAC are looking for any reason to shut either our unit or Sandra's down, and at the moment we've got nothing on this case which means they've got all the reason in the world to shut us *both* down!"

The line went dead and Grace sighed. She put the receiver down and covered her face with her hands. A minute later, she heard her door click shut and she looked up to see Boyd stood there.

"Hi," he said quietly.

"Hi."

"Can I -?" he asked, pointing to the couch.

"Sure."

Boyd sat down heavily, leant back and dragged a hand over his face. "That was Sarah."

"I guessed."

"She wanted me to go over this weekend but I told I couldn't because of the case."

Grace looked at him carefully. "That's not entirely true, is it, Boyd?" she asked gently. "The case isn't progressing very quickly and even if something did come to light over the weekend, the rest of us are more than capable of handling it. You'd only be gone three days."

"Yeah, but I don't like leaving in the middle of a case," Boyd replied, ignoring her question.

"I thought I wasn't allowed to discuss Sarah."

"I changed my mind."

"I thought things weren't going well between you."

Boyd shrugged. "I don't know, Grace. I…never mind."

Grace put her chin on her hands, her elbows on the desk. "So if things are okay again between the two of you, why don't you go over?"

"I just said, Grace, because we're in the middle of a case!" Boyd said, his voice rising again.

"Your job is important to you," Grace stated.

"Of course it is!"

"More important than anything, or anyone, else?" she asked.

Boyd floundered a bit and pulled a face. "I wouldn't say that exactly."

"More important than Sarah?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Grace." Boyd groaned.

"You've changed your tune."

"Grace," he whined.

She hid a smile behind her hand. "Then why did you come in here?"

He looked at her with tired eyes. "To talk about it," he said in his best little boy voice, which elicited a laugh from Grace as it always did.

"Do you want to just talk or should I ask questions?"

Boyd sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I thought things between me and Sarah were going well, you know? But obviously I was wrong.. And I…well, I'm confused. I like Sarah, but I'm not sure she's the - one - I want." He sighed again. "She has a problem with a friendship I have with another woman."

Grace raised her eyebrows. "Just a friendship?"

"Grace!" Boyd said, exasperatedly.

She held her hands up. "Sorry. Go on."

"I spend a lot of time with this woman - it's a little hard not to as we work together - but Sarah thinks there's more going on, or that I want there to be more going on."

"Well, you've just told me that it's either Stella, Eve or myself," Grace said. "Was that intentional?" Boyd nodded. "You want me to guess rather than tell me yourself?" Another nod. "Okay. Well, you spend more time in the office than in the lab, and while Stella is your subordinate, you've known her longer than Eve, so I'd rule Eve out. And you've known me longer than Stella, and I'm certainly not your subordinate, so I'd rule Stella out." Grace paused. "Sarah is jealous of me?" Boyd nodded again and Grace let out a little surprised laugh. "Why?"

"Because you're not my subordinate," Boyd repeated. "You're my equal."

"So is she."

"She feels threatened by you."

"But why, Boyd?" Grace asked, confused, and just as he started to speak, his previous words filtered through into her mind; *'or that I want there to be more going on.'*

The policeman ran his hand through his hair again. "Sarah thinks that - I - have - feelings - for - you," he replied slowly, as if speaking the words were painful. "She also thinks that I'm fooling myself because you don't see me as anything else but a friend, and that I haven't told you because I'm afraid of rejection."

"Ah. The 'you don't get to psychoanalyse me' comment," Grace said, and shrugged when Boyd glared at her. "What? Your voice carries."

"So you also heard me agree with Sarah that you're the only one who can do that, analyse me."

"I did." Grace shook her head. "Why?"

"Because I trust you."

"Wow. Is that the only reason?" she asked after a pause.

"Do I need another?"

"Is there any truth to what Sarah said? About you having 'feelings' for me?"

Something about Grace's tone of voice made Boyd look at her. He wasn't completely useless at reading women, and he was certain there was a spark of…something behind Grace's eyes. Was it hope? Fear?

A knock on the door startled them both and they turned to see Spencer's head appeared. "We've managed to track down all four sets of parents."

"Really?" Boyd asked, surprised.

"Four?" Grace said at the same time.

"Yep." Spencer turned to Grace. "We also found out that Tommy Draper was around at the time of the murders, so we tracked his parents too.

"That's good work, Spence," Boyd said.

"Thanks, but I can't take all the credit." He gestured to the others, who had reappeared in the bullpen. "They helped."

Boyd smiled. "Okay. We'll be right out." Spencer nodded and left, and Boyd looked at Grace, knowing their moment had been spoilt. "Let's go and see what they've got."

TBC


	10. Changes

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Okay, in January 1990, about five weeks before the murders, there was disturbance in a local corner shop," Spencer started, standing next to the board. "No one was arrested, but one of the people questioned was a Tommy Draper, born July sixteenth 1969."

Boyd put his hands behind his head, leant back in his chair and whistled. "I guess that puts him right back in the frame."

"There's still nothing to link Tommy Draper to the Greenes, or to the other three, though," Brian said. "However, we did find his parents, John and Lynne Draper, still at the same address as they were at the time of the murders."

"There's nothing on Tommy since 1990, though," Jack added.

"Put him up on the board anyway, Spence," Boyd said. "Do we have a picture?"

Spencer shook his head. "The only one we have a photo of is Jake Rawley."

"Alright, we need to rectify that. Carry on, Spence."

The DI wrote Tommy's name on the board, along with his parents' names. "Jake's parents, Jeff and Martha Rawley, and Lee's parents, Frank and Kathy Hopkins, both still live at the same addresses they did in 1990. Karl's mother, Liz Morgan, now lives in a flat. She moved when her husband, Adam, died two years ago."

"We should question all the parents. They might tell us something their children didn't, and the Drapers might know where their son is. At least it's better than sitting around doing nothing," Sandra said, shrugging. "Okay, do we want to draw straws or can I pair people up this time?"

Boyd smiled. "You pair."

"In that case, we'll go to see the Rawleys. Grace and Brian can go to see Mr and Mrs Hopkins, Stella and Gerry can interview Mrs Morgan, and Spence and Jack can talk to the Drapers."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Brian asked. "Sending Gerry to interview a widow."

Jack looked at Stella. "I hope you can keep him on a short leash."

"I'm sure he'll behave himself," Stella replied, smiling.

Jack and Brian shared a look. "I'm not," Brian muttered.

"Hadn't we better tell Eve we're all leaving?" Grace suggested. "Or at least leave a note."

Boyd nodded. "I'll do it." He grabbed the marker and wrote 'Eve - Gone Out' on the board.

"Boyd," Grace said, frowning.

"What?"

She opened her mouth to say something more, but changed her mind. Instead she just shook her head and turned to Brian. "Come on, Brian. Let's go and talk to Mr and Mrs Hopkins."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Do you mind if I do the talking?" Jack asked Spence.

The DI shook his head. "Be my guest."

Jack smiled as he knocked on the door. "Thanks."

A man in his early sixties answered. "Yes?"

"Mr Draper?"

"Yes."

"My name is Jack Halford and this is DI Jordan. Can we come in?"

"What's this about?" John Draper asked, frowning.

"We'd like to talk to you about your son, Tommy, Mr Draper," Spencer replied.

"I see. Yes, you'd better come in, then." Mr Draper led them into the sitting room where a woman was waiting. "This is my wife, Lynne."

Jack smiled. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Jack Halford from UCOS, and this is DI Jordan."

Spencer smiled as well. "How do you do."

"Is this about Tommy?" Mrs Draper asked straightaway. "Have you found him?"

"I'm afraid not, Mrs Draper," Jack replied. "We were wondering if we could ask you a few questions."

"Of course," Mr Draper said.

"When was the last time you saw your son?"

"It must have been March or April 1990, just after those murders," Mr Draper replied. "Tommy was very upset because he and Jake Rawley had been friends in school."

"I see. Did Tommy ever mention Jake before the murders, after they had left school?" Jack asked.

"Not very often, but we didn't see Tommy a lot. He was…working," Mr Draper said, taking his wife's hand in his.

Jack nodded once in understanding. "Did Tommy ever talk about any other friends? Karl Morgan or Lee Hopkins, perhaps."

"I recognise those names from when Tommy was at school," Mrs Draper said, "but not afterwards."

"Do you have a picture of your son we could borrow, please?" Spencer asked.

"Of course. I'll get you one." Mrs Draper stood up and left the room.

"Why are you asking about Tommy now? What's happened?" There was a note of urgency in Mr Draper's voice. "Can you tell me?"

Jack looked at Spencer and inclined his head slightly. "We're reinvestigating the Greene murders that Jake Rawley was arrested for, and your son's name came up this time, but not in the original investigation. We're just looking at every possible angle, that's all," the DI replied.

"Here you go," Mrs Rawley said as she re-entered the room, handing a photo to Jack. "That was taken Christmas 1989."

"Thank you. We'll return it once we've finished with it." Jack stood up. "Thank you for your time. If we find anything out about your son, we'll let you know."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Eve burst into the bullpen already talking. "Okay, I've managed to isolate some DNA in that third blood sample and…." She stopped and looked around. "Great. Where is everyone?" The note on the board caught her eye and she threw her arms up in the arm. "Well that's just bloody fantastic! Why am I the last to know these things? I might as well talk to my bloody self!"

Eve walked up to the board, her back to the doors, and started talking again as though she had an audience. "Okay, so as I was saying, I've managed to isolate some DNA in the third blood sample I've found. It is definitely not Bruce or Michelle Greene's, and I don't think it's Jake Rawley's either. Why? Because when he arrived at the police station, there were no marks on him whatsoever," she said, answering the question that would have inevitably been asked by a colleague, had anyone actually been around.

"Even a small cut would have left a mark after three days," Eve continued, "so I think it's safe to say the blood is not Jake Rawley's. That brings a second person into the equation, and it also throws into doubt Rawley's guilt. This blood is mixed in with the Greenes' blood, so whoever it belongs to *must* have been at the scene of the crime."

Eve tacked two pieces of paper to the board. "These are DNA profiles from Bruce and Michelle Greene. I managed to separate the two largest amounts of blood on the knife to get two different profiles. Why, thank you." Someone had obviously just complimented her ingenuity - or Eve knew they would have done if anyone was there. "This is Bruce's," she pointed to the one on the left, "and this is Michelle's." She pointed to the one on the right. "Now this is a DNA profile from the mystery third blood sample." Eve tacked it to the board underneath and in the middle of the other two. "Notice anything?"

"It looks like they're related somehow."

"Fuck!" Eve swore and spun round at Stella's comment, and then exclaimed, "Bloody hell!" when she saw everyone looking at her. She had been that engrossed in her explanation that she hadn't heard them all return, and she vaguely wondered how they manage to show up back at the offices at the same time.

"You know, we used to have a swear box," Gerry said, hanging his coat up. "And I ended up putting most of the money in. I think we should have another one here, and you can contribute to it instead."

"Just no curry," Jack muttered, and Brian nodded his agreement.

Grace smiled at Eve. "Sorry."

"I should bloody well think so!" the scientist replied. "Were you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"No, for that we'd have got Boyd to shout," Sandra replied.

"I heard that!" Boyd called from his office.

"You were meant to!" Sandra shouted back.

"Is she always like this?" Boyd asked the retired officers as he returned to the bullpen.

"Apparently not until she met us," Brian replied. "She says we've been a bad influence on her."

"I can believe that," Spencer murmured.

"*She* is still here," Sandra said flatly.

Gerry looked at her and nodded. "We know."

Boyd grinned at the banter and turned to look at Eve. "So what were you saying before we rudely interrupted?"

"How much did you hear?" she asked, having finally calmed down.

"Most of it."

"Okay. Well, looking at this profile," Eve said, pointing to the paper on the board, "I'd say that the blood belongs to the offspring of Bruce and Michelle Greene."

"There was no mention of any family in the case file, was there?" Jack asked.

Sandra shook her head. "Nothing."

"Have you run the profile through the computer?" Boyd asked.

Eve nodded. "As we speak, but we might not have an answer until tomorrow."

"It's better than what the original team found, though, right?" Spencer said.

"It is," Grace agreed.

Eve moved to sit next to the profiler. "So how did you all get on?"

Gerry snorted. "Nobody told us anything we didn't already know, that Karl hadn't spoken to Jake since leaving school, that Lee and Jake have never drifted at all, and that none of them spoke to Tommy since leaving school either."

"We did come up with something, though," Jack said, and glanced at Spencer, who stood up.

"John and Lynne Draper saw their son Tommy…." The DI put a photo of a young man with long black hair and a lopsided grin on the board. "…March or April 1990. This photo was taken Christmas 1989."

"So that's at least a month *after* the murders," Boyd said.

Spencer nodded. "Yeah."

"I think we need to find Tommy," Sandra stated.

"Unfortunately, his parents haven't heard from him since 1990," Jack replied.

"Dead end again, then, isn't it?" Brian said, shaking his head. "Maybe this is why the original investigation team were so happy to take Jake Rawley's confession on face value. It was too much like hard bloody work trying to figure things out."

"Yeah, well we're not like that," Sandra told him. "Our jobs depend on us doing a better job than they did, or proving beyond a doubt that their investigation was conclusive."

"Maybe we're not asking the right questions," Stella suggested.

"Go on," Spencer encouraged her, sitting down.

The DC stood up. "Well, why has Lee stood by Jake all these years? Even best friends have moments of doubt, but she's never wavered in her support for him."

"Maybe she loves him," Gerry suggested.

"Loves him or in love with him?" Grace asked. "Because there is a difference."

Gerry shrugged. "I was just thinking out loud."

"Yeah, but it's something we haven't thought about," Sandra said.

"What if Lee was the murderer and Jake is covering for her?" Brian suggested.

"Possible, but why would he take the blame for something like that?" Boyd asked. "Is there anyone you would do that for?"

Brian thought about it seriously for a while. "It would depend on why they committed the murder in the first place. But I suppose it would be Esther - that's my wife - and my son, Mark."

"What about Karl Morgan? How does he fit into all of this? *Does* he have anything to do with it or are we just chasing shadows?" Sandra wondered. "Grace, you said that he seemed to be hiding something. Any idea what?"

The profiler shook her head. "I just know that he isn't telling us something."

"Let's not forget the DNA that Eve found," Boyd said.

Sandra sighed and rubbed the back of her neck, then leant her elbows on the desk. "Okay, what have we got so far?"

Stella, who was still stood near the board, reeled off the facts. "Two victims, Bruce and Michelle Greene. A confession from Jake Rawley, but nothing else to link him to the crime."

"What made the police believe his confession?" Jack asked.

"He described the murder scene perfectly," Grace replied. "He must have been there."

"Ah, okay. I missed that." Jack looked at Stella. "Sorry, carry on."

"Right, so Rawley is linked to the crime through his confession, but there was no evidence to support that," Stella said. "We have Lee Hopkins, Jake's oldest friend and only supporter. We have Tommy Draper, a friend of Jake's who went missing around the same time as the murders were committed. We have Karl Morgan who we think is hiding something, and we have an unknown DNA profile that seems to belong to an offspring of the Greenes, though there is no record of them having any children."

Boyd ran his hand through his hair. "Let's break for lunch and tackle this afterwards."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

The afternoon didn't yield anything new, except for the fact that Jake Rawley refused to give a DNA sample and they couldn't make him.

"He's just being bloody stubborn," Gerry declared.

"Maybe, but we can't force him to give us a sample," Grace said.

Gerry looked at her. "You sure about that?"

"Down, Gerry," Sandra said.

"Why doesn't his lawyer persuade him to cooperate?" Spencer asked.

Brian shrugged. "Mr Rawley appears to be convinced that he is guilty, and maybe he is. He probably doesn't want his lawyer interfering." He shrugged again. "People are strange."

"Did you just say 'strange', Brian?" Jack asked, looking at his friend curiously. Brian glared at him over the top of his glasses.

"Who pays for the lawyer?" Stella asked suddenly.

"Erm…." Spencer made a lot of noise as he rifled through the papers on his desk. "I don't know. I'll find out."

"Tomorrow," Boyd groaned, shaking his head. "Do it tomorrow, Spence. I want to go home and I'm sure everyone else does as well."

"I thought he'd never let us go," Eve said to Grace, who smiled.

"Erm, I was wondering if you wanted to get a drink? And maybe something to eat," Gerry said to Eve.

"I don't know. Can you behave yourself?"

Gerry grinned. "Never."

"In that case, I'd love to." Eve waved to everyone as Gerry ushered her out. "Night, everyone."

"Come on, Brian, I'll give you a lift home," Jack said. "Anyone else need a taxi service?"

Spencer shook his head. "I'm good, thanks."

"Erm, I do," Stella said quietly.

"I'll drive you, if you like," Spencer offered, and she grinned at him.

"Thanks."

"Sandra?" Jack said tentatively.

"I'm fine. Thanks," she added, though it didn't sound like she meant it.

Jack just nodded. "Okay. See you tomorrow."

"Hot date?" Boyd asked Sandra with a grin.

"Hardly. I'm cooking for Chris."

Boyd looked surprised. "You can cook?"

"Of course," Sandra replied indignantly, then said, "Well, not often. But I'm a genius at ordering take away food."

Grace laughed. "I'm sure he'll appreciate it anyway."

"I bloody well hope so," Sandra said, smiling. "Night."

"So what do you have planned for the evening?" Grace asked as she and Boyd walked to the car park.

"An unpleasant task, a few drinks and sleep. You?"

"A bath, a few drinks and sleep," she replied, opting not to ask what the unpleasant task was, but she was shrewd enough to guess. They stopped when they reached the car park, and Grace put her hand on Boyd's forearm. "If you need to talk, you know where I am."

"First on my speed dial list," Boyd replied with a faint smile.

"Really?" Grace asked, surprised.

"Of course." His smile grew. "Thank you, Grace." He leant forward and brushed her cheek lightly with his lips. "Night."

Grace just stared at his back as he walked away. "Right. What the bloody hell was that all about?" she muttered to herself, the spot on her cheek still tingling as she got into her car.

TBC


	11. Forwards

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Sandra entered the office to find Jack, Brian, Stella and Spencer already at work. "Good night?" Brian asked.

Sandra smiled. "Yeah, thanks. You?" She looked at the four of them, although Jack hardly rated a glance, and they nodded.

"Really?" Eve's voice drifted to them, and as she walked through the doors with Gerry, she started laughing. "You didn't!"

Gerry spread his hands. "It's true." He realised everyone was staring at him. "What?"

"Nothing," Sandra said mildly.

"For your information, Dr. Lockhart and I arrived separately this morning and just walked in from the car park together. Alright?"

 

"Nobody said anything," Jack told him.

"Yeah, well, you were thinking too loudly."

Eve grabbed a mug of coffee and passed one to Gerry. "I'd better see if the results for that DNA profile have come back." She gave him a smile before disappearing.

"She likes you," Stella stated, then did a double take when everyone stared at her. "What? It's obvious."

"What's obvious?" Grace asked as she came into the office. "Morning all."

"Morning, Grace," Sandra replied. "Eve likes Gerry."

"Ah, that." The profiler didn't sound surprised.

"Would you all like me to leave then you can talk about me?" Gerry asked in a slightly peeved voice.

"It's much more fun if you stay," Jack told him.

"Brian…," Gerry pleaded, but never got to finish his sentence.

"Don't look at me. It's safer on the attacking side." The ex-DI smiled.

All heads turned when they heard Boyd's office door slammed shut. "Oh dear," Grace said.

"That is not good," Spencer added as they watched the blinds being shut.

"Great. Where am I supposed to work?" Sandra asked.

"You can use my office for now, if you like," Grace offered, turning to Stella. "Can you make me a very strong cup of coffee and find two aspirin from somewhere please?"

Sandra opened her bag, which she hadn't had chance to deposit in her and Boyd's office yet, and took out a packet. "Here." She handed it to Grace. "I keep it for headaches."

"You get a lot of them?" Stella asked conversationally.

"Three big ones, every day." Sandra smiled at her team. "Excuse me." She turned and took her coffee into Grace's office.

"I think she just insulted us," Brian said.

"No. Really?" Gerry replied sarcastically.

"Now now, children," Jack told them. "Play nicely."

Gerry looked at him sheepishly. "Yes, Mum."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Grace didn't bother to knock; she just walked straight into Boyd's office and shut the door quietly behind her. Boyd was sat behind his desk with his head in his hands, unmoving except for his chest rising and falling as he breathed. Grace placed the aspirin and coffee on the table.

"Breakfast," she said lightly. He didn't move. "Boyd?" Still nothing. "Okay. We'll get to work and let you know if anything important comes up. Sandra's working in my office for now." She put her hand tentatively on his shoulder. "If you …."

"Yeah, talk, I know where you are." Boyd's voice was raspy and slightly impatient. Then he sighed. "Thanks, Grace, but you don't need to keep telling me. I do know."

She smiled even though he couldn't see her and nodded. "Okay."

"I broke up with Sarah. It wasn't pleasant."

His admission stopped Grace in her tracks halfway across his office. "Oh."

"I'll be out after breakfast."

"Okay." Grace leant against the door as she closed it and took several deep breaths.

"You okay?" Sandra asked, startling her.

Grace smiled. "I think so."

"You sure? You look…I don't know, like you need to talk or something."

"Maybe I do."

"Shall we step into your office?" Sandra asked, and Grace's smile grew.

"Thanks."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

When Boyd emerged half an hour later, his hangover having subsided, everyone was busy working. Sandra and Grace were locked in Grace's office, and from the looks of it, they were having an intense discussion that Boyd didn't want to interrupt.

"What have you got for me?" Boyd asked.

Spencer looked up. "According to the firm that supplies Rawley's lawyer, Lee Hopkins pays for him."

Boyd looked at Stella. "What did you say Hopkins did for a living?"

"Author," the DC replied. "But she uses a pseudonym."

"Did she give it?"

Stella shook her head. "And we didn't ask. Sorry."

"Find out what it is. What about that DNA sample?"

"Eve's still waiting for the results to come through," Gerry said.

Boyd poured himself another coffee. "So nothing new, really."

Jack shook his head. "Not at the moment."

"I'd like to go and see Lee Hopkins," Grace said, startling Boyd and making him spill his drink. He swore. "Sorry." She smiled.

"Want me to come with you?" Jack offered.

Grace looked at him for a moment and then nodded. "Thank you. We won't be long."

Eve entered the bullpen as Grace and Jack left. "The DNA profile doesn't match any on the computer," she announced. "Sorry."

Boyd ran his hand through his hair. "Is there anything else we can get from that knife?"

Eve shook her head. "I've run it through every test I can think of."

"Surely Jake Rawley's DNA will already be on file if he's been convicted," Stella said. "Maybe that's why he didn't want to give it again."

"I've already checked. He's not on the database. And I still don't think the blood is his."

"Don't you think it's suspicious that he doesn't want to give his DNA?" Gerry asked.

"Not if he is the murderer," Brian replied. "The only way we can fit the DNA positively to the case is if we can get a sample from Rawley and if it matches the DNA Eve has."

"Right, so until that happens, I'll just keep it somewhere safe," Eve said.

Brian took his glasses off and frowned thoughtfully. "Can you check to see if any DNA profiles come close to the one you have?" he asked the scientist.

"That will take a few days, but yeah, I can."

"More Greene offspring?" Jack asked, and Brian nodded.

"If the DNA belongs to a child the Greenes had, there may be siblings out there whose DNA might be on file."

"Do it," Boyd told Eve, and then he looked at Brian. "Good thinking."

Brian beamed smugly.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

On the drive to Lee Hopkins' house, Jack explained to Grace what the problem was between himself and Sandra. Grace promised that she wouldn't say anything to Sandra, and said that Sandra hadn't spoken to her about it.

"Oh, I thought that…."

Grace smiled and interrupted him. "This morning I was doing the talking for a change."

"Oh, I see. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to burden you."

"It's not a burden. I'd like to think we're friends now, and that's what friends do. They listen to each other. I'm not sure I can help, though."

"You've helped enough by listening," Jack said to her. "Okay, here we are."

"If I wasn't so amused by your floundering with this case, I'd report you for harassment," Lee greeted them in an amused tone.

"Miss Hopkins, you told our colleagues that you were an author. We'd like to know what pseudonym you use," Jack said.

"I don't see how that's relevant to anything, unless you want an autograph."

"You pay for Mr Rawley's lawyer."

"Yes, but that is my business," Lee told them somewhat heatedly.

"Miss Hopkins, do you love him?" Grace asked bluntly.

Lee turned to face her. "Of course. He's my oldest friend. We're like brother and sister. Now unless you have any *relevant* questions, I'd like you to leave."

Grace just smiled. "Of course. Thank you for your time."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"What?" Gerry said, looking at Grace.

"I said Lee isn't *in* love with Jake Rawley."

"How do you know?"

"Because she's gay," Grace said patiently.

Boyd laughed in surprise. "Whoa, that's a bit out there, isn't it, Grace?"

"Not at all. When you ask someone if they love another person, the answer is obvious in their eyes." Boyd looked sceptical, and Grace noticed. "Alright. Sandra, can I use you as a guinea pig, so to speak?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Right, Boyd, look at Sandra. Sandra, do you love Chris?"

A slow smile spread across her face. "Yeah."

Grace turned to Boyd. "Did you see the way her eyes lit up?"

"Yeah, but, Grace…."

"Stay with me on this. Sandra, do you love Boyd?"

"No!"

"Thanks," Boyd said dryly.

"Did you see her eyes? There was no lie there. Eve, do you love Gerry?"

"No," the scientist replied.

Boyd stared at her. "You - you're lying!"

"No, I'm not. I like him a lot, but love is a bit strong a word to use right now," Eve said.

"You like me?" Gerry asked, his tone almost boyish.

Eve grinned. "Don't let it go to your head."

"You see, Boyd?" Grace said. "It's obvious."

"But gay, Grace?"

The profiler smiled. "Okay, so there was a picture of her with another woman and it was obvious they were in a relationship."

Boyd rolled his eyes at her. "Alright, you've made your point. She isn't in love with Rawley. But that still brings us back to the question of why she's supported him so adamantly for the last seventeen years!"

"Ah, there's the shouting," Sandra noted. "I was beginning to think you were all lying to me."

"About Boyd's temper?" Spencer said. "No. Never."

"How would you like to be demoted, Spence?" Boyd asked.

"I wouldn't."

"Then shut up."

The phone rang and Stella grabbed it. "Hello?… Yes…. Yes…. Okay, bring him down and put him in interview room one…. Thanks." She put the receiver down and turned to her colleagues. "John Draper is here to see Spence and Jack."

Jack looked surprised. "Really? I wonder what about."

"I suppose we'll find out when we get to interview room one," Spencer said.

"Do you want us to see him?" Jack asked Boyd and Sandra.

"Makes sense. He asked for you after all," Sandra replied.

"You and Grace observe," Boyd said to her. "Call if you need me."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"You wanted to see us?" Jack said as he and Spencer entered the interview room.

"Yes, yes I did." Mr Draper seemed nervous.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" Jack asked.

"Yes, please."

Spencer turned slightly to the pane of glass behind him. "I'll sort it, Spence," Grace said, her voice sounding in his ear piece.

Jack smiled at the man sat across from him. "Now, how can we help you?"

"It's about Tommy. I'm afraid we didn't tell you everything when you came to see us."

There was a knock on the door and Stella entered with a tray. She put it on the desk and Spencer smiled at her. "Thanks. Go on, Mr Draper."

The older man sighed. "Tommy…Tommy isn't our son."

TBC


	12. Chapter 12

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Sandra turned the microphone off for a moment and swore. "Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Why didn't they tell us that before?" she asked Grace in a frustrated voice.

Grace shrugged. "Maybe they didn't want to admit it."

"Oh, Boyd's going to love this."

"You don't seem too happy about it either."

"I'm not. This just throws a bloody big spanner into the works." Sandra started pacing. "We now have someone who knew Jake Rawley, was around at the time of the murders, and cannot be eliminated from the case because we can't take DNA from his parents because they're not his parents."

"Yes, but so far, we haven't got a link between Tommy and the Greenes. We haven't even got a link between Jake and the Greenes," Grace told her. "Let's see what Mr Draper has to say." Both women turned back to look into the interview room.

Jack's expression was surprised. "He's not your son?"

Mr Draper shook his head. "We raised him as our own and gave him our surname, but we never formally adopted him."

"Mr Draper, can you tell us why there are no records of Tommy at all?" Jack asked.

"Spence, do you mind Jack leading the interview?" Sandra asked the DI quietly, and he shook his head almost imperceptibly. "Thanks. Just wanted to check."

Grace smiled. "So there are differences between you and Boyd. I was beginning to wonder."

"You mean apart from the fact I'm better looking?"

"Depends on who you ask."

Jack turned round. "Do you mind?" He turned back. "Sorry about that, Mr Draper. Where were we?"

"You were asking about Tommy." Mr Draper sipped his tea. "Tommy was…a wild child, always roaming, and when he turned sixteen and left school, he left home as well. I'm afraid I lied when I said he was working."

"That explains why his friends lost touch with him," Grace murmured.

"He'd come home occasionally, especially for birthdays and Christmas," Mr Draper continued. "I think he enjoyed having someone to share those times with."

"When did you 'adopt' Tommy, Mr Draper?" Spencer asked.

"When he was about five or six."

Jack studied him carefully. "And how did that come about?"

"Believe it or not, he just walked into our house. My wife was cooking, and then she went upstairs. When she came down, this young boy was in the kitchen eating what she'd just made." Mr Draper smiled somewhat sadly. "He was dishevelled, filthy and painfully thin, and my wife's first instinct was to mother him."

"Do you have any children of your own, Mr Draper?"

The older man hung his head. "No. Lynne and I…we can't have children." His head shot up suddenly. "I know what you're thinking, but we didn't kidnap Tommy. That's not why we had problems with him. We think he had an abusive childhood, but we're not sure. He never talked to us about things like that; he only talked to his friends."

"Lee Hopkins, Jake Rawley and Karl Morgan," Spencer stated, and Mr Draper nodded.

"Ask him if he knew who Tommy's real parents were," Sandra said.

Jack leant forward. "Mr Draper, do you know who Tommy's real parents were?"

The older man hesitated too long before answering. "No."

"He's lying," Sandra stated triumphantly.

Stella came into the room. "We've just found something interesting," she said.

"Okay, thanks, Stella. We'll be up in a minute," Grace replied, smiling.

"Does Mr Draper need to stay?" Sandra asked.

Stella thought about it, then nodded. "Erm, it might be a good idea. For now."

"Okay, Spence, Jack, you're needed in the bullpen. They've found something. But don't let Mr Draper leave," Sandra told them.

Spencer smiled at the older man. "I'm sorry, Mr Draper, but we need to take a short break. Are you okay to stay here until we get back?"

"Yes, of course."

"Thank you."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"So what have you got?" Sandra asked.

Gerry saw the look on her face. "What have *you* got?"

She grinned. "I asked first."

Boyd shook his head. "We were looking at a map of the area around the Greenes' house," he started, "to see if we could find a link between Jake Rawley and the Greenes. Brian?"

Brian stood up and put a circle on the map. "This is the Greenes' house, Winchester Road. Now, we have addresses for the parents of Jake Rawley, Lee Hopkins, Karl Morgan and Tommy Draper at the time of the murders."

"And from that we can assume that Jake, Lee, Karl and Tommy were living at those addresses too," Boyd added.

"Now this is where the Rawley family lived," Brian said, placing another dot on the map, "not five minutes from the Greenes."

"Shit," Sandra muttered.

"Oh, it gets better," Gerry told her.

"This is the Hopkins' address." Another dot. "The Drapers' address." Another dot. "And we found the address for the Morgans before Mrs Morgan moved." Another dot. "Notice anything?"

"They're all in the same area," Spencer said. "That's, what? Half an hour at the most from any one house to another?"

Brian nodded. "Thirty five minutes to be exact from the Morgans house here, to the Greenes house here." He turned to the team. "The others are closer to each other."

"I'd say that puts them all right in the frame for murder," Gerry stated.

"Not really. There's nothing else linking them to the Greenes," Jack replied.

"Yet," Gerry muttered.

"What have you got?" Boyd asked Sandra.

She looked at the DI. "Spence?"

Brian sat down and Spencer stood up. "Tommy Draper is not the son of John and Lynne Draper."

"Je-sus," Boyd said, walking away from the desk, swearing, and then coming back. "And Mr Draper didn't tell us this before because…?"

Spencer shrugged. "They adopted him, informally, when he was five or six. Apparently he just walked into their house and they kept him. He left when he was sixteen, but came back for special occasions."

"Mr Draper also told us that he and his wife can't have children," Jack continued. "But he insists they didn't kidnap Tommy."

"I'll check missing persons in 1974 and '75 just to be sure," Stella said.

"Good idea," Jack replied. "Mr Draper thinks Tommy ran away from a rough home, but Tommy never talked to them, just to his friends."

"We also think that Mr Draper knows who Tommy's real parents are," Grace added, looking at Boyd.

He stared at her thoughtfully. "The Greenes?"

Grace nodded slowly. "That would be my guess."

"Which gives us a solid link between Tommy and the Greenes, and throws Jake Rawley's confession and conviction into serious doubt," Sandra said.

"Okay." Boyd turned to Spencer and Jack. "Get back in there and ask Mr Draper about it. Don't let him go until you get the truth."

"We're on it, boss," Spencer said.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Mr Draper, I'm going to be blunt," Jack said as soon as he sat down. "We think you know who Tommy's real parents are, and we think you aren't telling us because you're protecting him. Believe me, you're not. We need to know the truth."

Mr Draper rested his elbows on the table, locked his hands together, and put his forehead against his knuckles. When he looked up, there was no doubt that what he was about to tell them was the truth. "Bruce and Michelle Greene were Tommy's parents. They lived in the same area as us and had a son called Tommy. We stopped seeing them with Tommy round about the same time as a thin, bedraggled child walked into our home. The resemblances between him and Tommy were too obvious to be ignored, but they never asked for him back," he continued hurriedly. "They never had any contact with him at all. It was like they didn't care, and the state he was in…. If he wasn't badly treated, I'll eat my hat."

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Sandra said, pacing in frustration.

Grace just nodded. "I agree."

"Did Tommy know who his real parents were?" Jack asked.

"I - I'm not sure," Mr Draper admitted.

"Mr Draper, where was Tommy on February sixteenth 1990?" Spencer asked.

"I honestly don't know. He hadn't been home since Christmas, but I can tell you the area I know he was spending a lot of time in. Maybe there are some people on the streets who'll remember him."

Jack handed him a piece of paper and a pen, and turned slightly to the glass. "Alright, guys, let him go," Sandra told them. "Just make sure he knows he's not in our good books."

"Thank you for coming in, Mr Draper, but you really should have told all of this to the original investigating team," Jack said firmly.

"I know, and I'm sorry," Mr Draper replied sheepishly. "And if I remember anything else, I'll let you know straight away."

"Please do."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

*"WHAT?"* Boyd yelled. "Well, that's just bloody fantastic! He's all but told us that the original team jailed the wrong fucking man!"

"Boyd," Grace said in exasperation.

"No, Grace, don't tell me to calm down! Not only was the wrong man arrested, but the person who we now *think* committed the murders is nowhere to be bloody found!"

"Hang on, we don't *know* that Tommy is the murderer," Gerry said.

"You're either brave or stupid," Spencer muttered.

Boyd stared at the retired officer. "He was their *son*! They probably abused him…."

"There's no evidence to suggest that," Jack pointed out.

"And the DNA on the knife belongs to a child of the Greenes! How can you not come to the conclusion that Tommy is the murder from all of that?" Boyd asked, throwing his hands up into the air.

"Alright, maybe you're right. But how did Jake get hold of the murder weapon? And why did he confess?" Gerry asked. "I don't think we should jump to conclusions about Tommy's guilt."

Boyd continued to stare at the ex-DS as though he'd grown an extra head and three more eyes. "You were all from hanging him from the nearest yard arm not half an hour ago!"

"Maybe we should try and find anyone still living on the streets who would remember Tommy Draper," Sandra suggested diplomatically. "Gerry, Stella, do you want to do that?"

"Yeah," Gerry replied, glaring at Boyd on the way out.

"Spence, do you want to inform Rawley's lawyer of the development? You know they'll have our bollocks if we don't," Sandra said.

Spencer glanced at Boyd and then nodded. "I'm on it."

"Do you want us," Jack said, gesturing to himself and Brian, "to talk to Jake again or carry on trying to track Tommy down?"

Sandra glanced at him briefly. "I think tracking Tommy is our main priority at the moment."

"Don't you have any orders for me?" Boyd snapped.

"Yeah, go and calm down," Sandra retorted.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

The atmosphere in the office was tense for the next few days. After their initial breakthrough, the teams found themselves at a dead end once again, and the frustration was almost tangible. Tempers were very short and frayed around the edges, and everyone took to only talking when absolutely necessary. Jake Rawley had refused to see them, and they couldn't force him to talk to them without more solid information, and Tommy Draper seemed to have completely disappeared, which was an amazing feat in itself.

Eve was doing forensic work on other minor cases to pass the time, and while Grace should have been working on some papers, she found herself mediating between everyone to make sure no permanent harm was done.

When Grace's phone rang, it was a welcome distraction from staring into the bullpen, waiting for an inevitable explosion. "Hello?… Yes…. Yes…. Really?… Oh, right. Bring him down, please." The profiler replaced the receiver, took a deep breath, and walked into the bullpen, calling for Boyd and Sandra as she went.

"Please tell me this is good news, Grace," Boyd said tiredly.

"It could be. There's a young man being brought down who says he knew Tommy Draper," she replied. She looked at everyone in the room before her eyes settled on Brian. "Will you come and talk to him with me?"

"If you like," Brian said.

Boyd nodded. "I'll observe."

"Me too," Sandra added.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Hello. I'm Grace Foley, this is Brian Lane," Grace said as she entered the interview room, taking in the appearance of the man before her. He seemed to be in his early thirties, and he looked as though he had lived on the streets most of his life.

"Scott. That's what people call me. Dunno if it's my name or not, but that's what they call me," the man replied.

"Nice to meet you, Scott. You wanted to talk to us?" Grace's voice was gentle and encouraging.

"She's good," Sandra said to Boyd.

His answering smile held a measure of pride. "Yeah, she is."

"Yeah. Tommy. You're looking for him. You won't find him."

"You knew Tommy Draper?" Brian asked.

"Dunno his last name, just his first. Word on the street is that you're looking for him. You won't find him," Scott replied, scratching at his head.

Grace looked at him. "Why not?"

"He disappeared. Said he was moving away, but I think he was lying."

"Why?" Brian asked.

"Had no money, did he? Said something about Canada, but must have been lying. Got no cash to get there. But it was weird." Scott shook his head. "Didn't see him for a few days, thought he'd moved on. When he showed up again, all his clothes were new. Different. Weird."

"When did you see Tommy last, Scott?" Brian asked, his tone soft as well.

"He's not bad either," Boyd said to Sandra.

She smiled. "He has his moments. So long as he remembers to take his bloody pills."

Brian twitched slightly and Sandra looked surprised. Then she looked at the microphone, still on, turned to Boyd, pointed to it and mouthed, 'Shit.' Boyd cringed and nodded his agreement, embarrassed with the knowledge that Grace must have heard his compliment.

Scott shrugged. "Dunno. No good with dates or numbers. But it was after those murders. I know that. Was only a lad at the time, new to the streets. Tommy took care of me, helped me. But after those murders, after his mate was arrested…."

"What mate?" Brian asked quickly.

"Jake. Dunno about last names, not good with them. But Tommy talked about his friends a lot. Think they tried to help him out at times," Scott said.

Grace and Brian looked at each other, then Grace turned to the young man. "Scott, did Tommy still see his friends while he was living on the streets?"

"Think so. Sounded like it," Scott replied. "Would tell me he spent the day with Jake and Lee, or Lee and Karl, or Jake and Karl. But after Jake was arrested, Tommy went weird. Stopped talking to everyone. Disappeared not long afterwards."

"They've been lying to us the whole time," Sandra said angrily. "Bastards."

"They are going to be very sorry about this," Boyd agreed, his tone menacing. "Okay, Grace. Thank him and let him go."

Grace smiled at Scott. "Thank you, Scott. You've been very helpful. If you'll follow me, I'll show you out."

They left the interview room just as Sandra and Boyd were coming out of the observation room. The two superintendents stood to one side to let them pass, and Scott glanced at them as he walked by. Then suddenly he stopped and turned to Boyd.

"You got a son?" he asked.

Boyd turned quickly. "What?"

"You got a son, haven't you?" Scott said again, with more conviction. "Name of Joe."

Grace watched the colour drain from Boyd's face, and for a brief moment, she actually thought he would faint. "What do you know about Joe?" Boyd asked eventually, his emotions barely contained.

"Knew him. Was my friend."

Grace put her hand on Boyd's forearm. "Why don't the three of us go into your office?" she suggested quietly. Boyd didn't move for a long time, then suddenly he stalked off.

"Follow me." His voice trailed back to them, his tone alarmingly low.

Grace gestured for Scott to follow Boyd, and she fell into step behind him.

"Any idea what that was all about?" Brian asked Sandra.

She shook her head. "Not a clue."

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that as of Season 7, Boyd's son's name is now Luke, not Joe, but I started writing this story before Season 7 and so I was using information from earlier seasons.


	13. Emotions

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Just go in and sit down, Scott," Grace told the young man. "We won't be a moment. Would you like anything to drink?"

"Water would be nice."

"Stella, get him a glass of water, will you? Boyd, come into my office a minute." Grace closed the door behind them and leant against it. "I know you're eager to know what happened to Joe but try to control yourself in there. And be aware that whatever Scott has to say might not be what you want to hear."

"Don't you think I know that, Grace?" Boyd yelled, gesturing wildly. "Ever since Joe disappeared, I've prayed for some kind of news about, so I can get closure! Isn't that what you call it, Grace?"

"Closure, Boyd?" Grace repeated in surprise.

"Yes, Grace, closure. That's what you're always banging on about, isn't it? The way for people to move on? Well that's what I'm looking for, and if this young man has information on my son, any kind of information, I want to hear it!"

"Alright." Grace sighed, tired of trying to get him to open up when he obviously didn't want to, and moved from the door, allowing him to leave if he wanted, but he didn't go. "Do you want me to sit in with you?" she asked quietly, somewhat surprised. Boyd didn't look at her, he just nodded. "Okay."

They left her office and went into his, Grace managing to convey to Spencer that they weren't to be disturbed. Scott was sat in front of Boyd's desk, waiting patiently for them. Boyd sat opposite him and Grace seated herself on the sofa.

"Now, Scott, please tell me everything you know about my son, starting with how you knew I was Joe's father," Boyd said calmly.

"Eyes. You've both got the same eyes. Recognised them immediately."

"Go on."

Scott shifted in his seat. "Met Joe few years ago. Said he'd run away from home, so I took care of him, like Tommy looked after me. But this was well after Tommy."

Boyd smiled slightly. "I understand that. Please, continue."

"Joe didn't tell me why he'd run away, and I didn't ask," Scott said. "One day, we were walking and saw this gang trying to mug an old lady." He ducked his head. "I wanted to carry on walking, but Joe said we should help. Said it was the right thing to do. I told him it was a bad idea. He didn't listen." Scott looked up and it was clear he was ashamed of something. "Joe told them to leave the old lady alone. They did. The old lady ran away, well, as fast as old ladies can run. Joe turned his back on the gang, started walking back towards me. One of the gang came up behind him and stabbed him. Didn't see me. Joe fell down. Never got back up. I - I ran off." Scott hung his head again. "Didn't get far, felt guilty. Found a pay phone, called the police. Told them - told them there was a - a de-dead guy in the park. He'd have been filed under 'John Doe', right? I'm sorry."

"When was this?" Boyd asked, his voice still calm. Grace looked at him sharply, and while his face was expressionless, she could see his resolve crumbling quickly behind his eyes.

"Not last World Cup, one before that. No good with dates or numbers, just know events. Big football fan," Scott replied.

"Five years ago," Boyd muttered, and Grace knew that was the end of the conversation.

She stood, crossed the room and put her hand on Scott's shoulder. "Thank you, Scott," she told him sincerely. "I'll get someone to show you out." She opened Boyd's office door and let the young man out. "Stella?"

"Yes, Grace?"

"Show this young man out of the building, please."

Stella nodded. "This way."

"Spence, can you make sure we're not disturbed for a while longer please?" Grace asked the DI.

"Is everything okay? What was that about?"

Grace sighed heavily. "Boyd's son."

Spencer nodded in understanding. "Right." He put his hand on her arm. "Go and look after him. We can take of things out here."

"I'm going to close the blinds," Grace told him.

"Do what you've got to do," Spencer replied.

Grace smiled her thanks and went back into Boyd's office, shutting the door quietly. He was sat in the same position she found him a few days ago, with his head in his hands. She went around closing all the blinds and eventually ended up stood next to him. While physical comfort had never entered into their relationship, Grace knew - and hoped - it was what Boyd needed now because it was what she wanted to give.

She put one arm around his shoulders and tried to draw him to her. Surprisingly, he didn't resist, and rested his head on her stomach. For a while they didn't move, then slowly, Boyd's body began to shake as he cried. Grace lifted her other hand to stroke his hair soothingly, her arm around his shoulders tightening in an attempt to protect him from the pain.

The phone ringing startled both of them and they jumped apart. Grace briefly considered killing Spencer, but then she realised that perhaps it wasn't a call he could divert.

"Boyd," the policeman said as he answered the phone, his voice hoarse and wavering though he was trying valiantly to keep his emotions in check. Grace made to leave, but he grabbed her hand and squeezed. She smiled and nodded, understanding his silent plea for support. "What do you want?… I told you, it's over…. My relationship with Grace is between me and her and nothing to do with you…. I'm not continuing this conversation. Try and phone again and I'll have your number blocked." Boyd slammed the phone down.

"Sarah?" Grace asked tentatively. He nodded. Grace took her lip between her teeth and chewed gently as she made a decision. Wordlessly, she tugged on Boyd's hand, encouraging him to get up, and she lead him across the room. She sat down first and then pulled him down. He sat down somewhat awkwardly, unsure as to what was going on. Grace smiled and squeezed his hand again, then she let go. "Lie down, and put your head here." She patted her lap.

"Is this a normal therapy technique for you, Dr. Foley?" Boyd asked as he did as he was told.

Grace swatted him lightly on the head before resuming stroking his hair. "Shush."

"Yes, ma'am." She hit him again. "Ouch."

"Boyd, shut up and relax."

"Do you think I should tell the others?" he asked after a while.

"Only if you want to."

"A problem shared is a problem lessened, isn't that right, Grace?"

She smiled. "Something like that."

He sighed. "I've made a lot of mistakes, Grace, and I'll probably make a lot more, but I want to try and do something right."

"Then tell them."

He nodded and then sat up slowly. "Thank you."

"Want me to hold your hand?" she asked innocently.

Boyd pulled a face. "Grace."

On impulse, she leant over and kissed his cheek. "Go on, I'll be right behind you."

"Next to me, like you always are," he replied, standing and walking into the bullpen. "I have something to tell you." All heads turned to him, including Eve's. "Shouldn't you be in the lab?"

She held her mug up. "Coffee."

Boyd smiled briefly, then became serious again. "As you probably know by now, Lee Hopkins, Karl Morgan and Jake Rawley did have contact with Tommy Draper right up until his disappearance seventeen years ago, which means we need to bring them in and question them this time. But not today. Right now, I'd like you all to go home because that is what I'm going to do." He took a deep breath. "As some of you know, my son, Joe, disappeared nearly seven years ago. The young man that came in to speak to us about Tommy Draper also knew my son. Joe - Joe died five years ago protecting an old woman from a gang attempting to mug her." Boyd's voice gave out, so he just lowered his head.

Eve moved first, squeezing his arm tentatively. "I'm sorry, Boyd." She looked at Gerry and smiled slightly. "Want a drink? My shout."

"Yeah, great. I'm sorry, Boyd."

"I understand how you feel. I lost my wife," Jack said, and when Boyd looked at him, he knew the older man *did* understand.

"Thank you."

Stella and Spencer didn't say anything, they just nodded silently to Boyd and left, but the DI did mutter, "Take care of him," to Grace as he passed her.

Brian couldn't think of anything to say either, but Boyd was just as grateful for his silence. "I know how important work is to you," Sandra told Boyd, "but if you need to take some time off, we can manage, and I'll make sure you're kept up to speed with the case."

"Thanks but I want to be here when you question the three friends," he replied.

Sandra nodded in understanding. "Night."

"Come on, Boyd. You're coming home with me," Grace said. "I'll cook."

"Grace, I don't need mothering," Boyd protested.

"No, you need the support of a friend." She paused. "I don't want you to be alone tonight, Boyd, alright? Humour me."

He looked like he was going to argue some more, but then he held his hands up in surrender. "Okay. But I get to sleep on the left side of the bed."

"Boyd!"

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Why don't you ever look happy when you come to see me?" Mrs Pullman asked.

Sandra rolled her eyes and sat down. "Hi, Mum. How are you? I'm fine, thanks for asking."

"Sarcasm doesn't suit you, dear. Did you bring me anything?"

"Such as?"

Mrs Pullman sighed. "Never mind. What do you want?"

"To see you. Isn't that a good enough reason?" Sandra asked, a little hurt by her mother's words.

"I suppose."

Sandra sighed and began explaining what was happening at work, finishing with Boyd's son. "So I wanted to come and see you because…well…." She found herself unable to find the right words, so she left the sentence hanging.

"I see," Mrs Pullman said quietly.

Sandra stared at her. "You know something, don't you?"

"Oh, I'm tired, Sandra."

"Oh no, not this time. You lied to me about Dad; you *will* tell me the truth this time," Sandra said heatedly.

Mrs Pullman's expression became anguished. "Alright! About five years ago, I was almost mugged by a gang, but a young man stopped them. He looked like he lived on the streets. I - I don't know what happened to him."

Sandra was speechless as she processed the information. Boyd's son had saved her mum…. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"What would you have done?" Mrs Pullman retorted. "What's an almost-mugging compared to murder?" She shook her head. "You wouldn't have been interested."

"You should've told me!" Sandra said, her voice growing louder as she stood up. "Just like you should've told me about Dad!"

Frustration, confusion and blind rage took over, though who the anger was directed at, Sandra wasn't sure. All she knew was that she needed to get out of the nursing home and quickly.

She missed the pained expression on her mother's face. She didn't see the grief-stricken tears that fell.

TBC


	14. Backwards

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Lee!" Jake exclaimed, rushing forward to embrace his old friend. "You're looking well."

"Thanks. Wish I could say the same about you."

"Now, now, be nice," he told her as they sat down.

Lee frowned. "Nice? Nice? What's that?"

Jake laughed and shook his head. "So what's with the unscheduled visit?"

"Do I need a reason?"

"You usually have one."

Lee reached across the table and took his hands. "The chances of you being released very soon have just increased tenfold."

"Really?"

Lee nodded. "The police have found solid evidence that links someone else to the crime, which in turn will clear you."

"Who?" Jake asked, a note of panic in his voice.

"Tommy Draper." Lee squeezed his hands and lowered her voice. "Don't worry, he's safe. They've had no luck finding him."

Jake nodded in relief. "Good. Have you spoken to Karl?"

Lee shook her head. "Not yet. I'm going there after I leave here."

"Tell him I said hi."

"I will. He always asks about you, you know."

Jake smiled. "It'll be nice to be out of here, I'll admit that."

"Stick to the plan and it should be soon." She glanced at her watch. "I'd better be going." They both stood and embraced. "I miss you."

"I miss you too. And thank you."

Lee flashed him a grin. "Don't worry about it."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Sandra walked into the kitchen of her flat and smiled at Chris, who handed her a cup of coffee. "Mmm, thanks."

"You're welcome," the tall ex-model replied. "Feeling any better?"

When she had got home the night before, Sandra was in a state and had phoned Chris. He had come round straight away and she had crumbled before him, pouring her heart out. She told him about the argument with her mother, about her father killing himself, how Jack had been involved in an investigation into her father's conduct and how that was the reason for his suicide. Sandra explained about the case they were working on and how Boyd's son had been killed.

Chris had held her and listened patiently, and after she had settled down, he continued to remain silent. Words, he knew, would not make her feel any better or offer her any kind of comfort. Only his presence could do that.

"Yeah, thanks," Sandra replied, still smiling.

"You're welcome. Listen, I've got to go away for a few days. A friend of mine is opening a gallery in Manchester and I said I'd be there," Chris said. "But when I get back, how about we go to see a movie? I know you haven't been to the cinema in a while."

Sandra circled his arms around his waist and hugged him. "Yeah, I'd like that."

He kissed the top of her head. "Good. Now put some clothes on and get to work!"

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"You'll have to be quick. I have appointments," Karl greeted Lee.

"Do you always have to be so bloody brash?" she retorted. "I hope you don't take this manner with your patients."

"How else am I supposed to be?" he snapped. "Everything's fucking arse up in the air!"

Lee put her hand on his shoulder. "I know, but maybe not for much longer."

"What do you mean?" he asked her, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"The police have found solid evidence linking someone else to the murders, which means Jake will undoubtedly be cleared."

"Shit, not Tommy," Karl said, shaking his head.

"Of course. You honestly didn't expect it to be anyone else, did you?" Lee asked.

Karl sighed. "No. I mean, I hoped, but it was a stupid hope. A fool's hope."

"Look, Tommy's safe, for now. But we've got to face the possibility that we might have to move him at some point. He can't stay hidden for ever, especially not with the way the police are ploughing into this case. They're bound to track him down sooner or later."

"Maybe, but let's leave him be for now. He's been through enough."

Lee nodded. "Agreed. Right, I'd better go. I'll talk to you soon."

"And if the police get in touch in the mean time?" Karl asked.

"Do as usual - fence."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

The teams started late that morning, and the atmosphere was subdued as they all shuffled into the office, heading automatically to the coffee machine.

"Form an orderly line and don't push," Stella told them firmly, and began handing out coffee-filled mugs.

"Okay, I've had Strickland on the phone already this morning," Sandra told them.

"Why doesn't he come in and see us?" Brian asked. "I'm sure we'd all like to see him."

"I know two 'friends' that would," Gerry muttered, clenching his fists.

"As much as I'd like to lock him in a room with you two and feign ignorance of any injuries that would occur, I don't think that would help our situation," Sandra told them, smiling fondly.

"So what did his royal pain in the arse want?" Jack asked.

"A progress report."

Brian looked at her. "Did he specify *where* he wanted it?"

"No," Sandra replied. "Although I think 'on his desk' was probably what he had in mind."

Gerry snorted. "Pity."

"Anyway, he wants to see me as soon as possible." Sandra looked at Boyd. "He only wants to see me."

Boyd smiled slightly. "Okay." If anyone had noticed him and Grace arriving together that morning, they didn't say anything. Even Sandra and her team had realised that the profiler was the only person who could tame the lion, and a tame lion made for a more pleasant working atmosphere.

Boyd walked over to the wipe board and sipped his coffee. "Okay, let's summarise what we've got so far because this lot…." He made a sweeping gesture at the board. "…still isn't tying together nice and neatly. To me, anyway."

Jack shook his head. "Not just you. It feels like we're missing something, and not just Tommy Draper."

"I agree," Spencer said, and everyone else nodded too.

"Okay. Good. Let's try and find out what it is, shall we? Then we have questioning to do. Spence, if you wouldn't mind doing the honours."

Grace glanced at Boyd to check he was alright. They had talked more the night before over home-cooked dinner than they had for years. Boyd had been surprisingly open about his feelings over Joe's death and his break-up with Sarah, and his treatment of Grace as well. He apologised, she forgave him, and a silent understanding passed between the two, their relationship altering somehow. The profiler listened to it all quietly, the two of them in the same position they had taken up in Boyd's office; his head in her lap, Grace playing with his hair as they sat on the couch. When he eventually fell silent, Grace just listened to his breathing, and it was only when Boyd started snoring that she realised how late it was. She left him sleeping on the sofa, and never had she seen him looking so peaceful. She thought it suited him.

The DI took Boyd's place. "Right. We have an eye witness that puts Tommy Draper in the area at the time of the Greene murders. We're pretty certain that Tommy was the Greenes son, and we think he was abused. If he was, this gives us a motive. We have DNA on the murder weapon that doesn't belong to the convicted man, Jake Rawley. The DNA is most likely from the Greenes child, so it's safe to assume it's Tommy's. That puts him at the scene of the crime, and quite possibly shows him to be the murderer."

Spencer turned to point to the map, and Grace took the opportunity to look around the room at the others. Both teams were listening to the DI, but Sandra seemed preoccupied. Grace wondered what had happened, and she glanced at Jack to see if he was involved, but there was no indication he knew what was wrong with his boss.

"We also know that Tommy's best friends Jake Rawley, Lee Hopkins and Karl Morgan lived in the same area as Tommy and the Greenes," Spencer continued. "All houses are within half an hour of each other more or less. Now we know Tommy lived on the streets, but we also know that his friends still kept in touch with him, though they told us they hadn't spoken to him since school."

"Thanks, Spence," Boyd said. "Now we know Tommy disappeared not long after the murders and that's where we've become stuck."

"It seems to me as though Jake, Lee and Karl are all protecting Tommy," Grace said. "But why? What hold does he have over them?"

"You're the psychologist, you tell us," Brian replied, earning him a glare from the profiler.

"Right now, I don't think it matters. We've got further than the original team did," Jack said. "Let's just hope it's enough to convince Strickland and the commissioner to keep us all employed for a while longer."

"So we're questioning the three friends again?" Stella asked.

"No, it wouldn't work," Gerry said, shaking his head. "I've been thinking about this and to get one of them to crack at all, we'd need solid evidence."

"Like an idea of where Tommy is at the moment," Eve added. "If they are protecting him, they've been doing it for the last seventeen years, so they'll be bloody good at it. We're going to need some very solid evidence to drive a wedge between them."

"What about the DNA?" Brian asked. "Tell them we know Tommy was the Greenes' son."

Sandra looked at Boyd, who nodded. "Do it," she said. "But only one of them."

"Karl Morgan," Grace suggested.

"Why him?" Spencer asked.

"Because out of all of them, he is most obviously hiding something."

Sandra nodded. "Okay, who wants to do that?"

"You're letting us choose? Are you ill?" Gerry asked.

"Well volunteered, Gerry. Anyone else?"

Spencer sighed. "I'll do it."

"You know how to make a bloke feel special, Spence," Gerry grumbled. The DI just grinned.

"Right, while Laurel and Hardy are working their magic, I'll go and bend Strickland's ear," Sandra said.

"His neck might be better," Brian muttered.

"Yes, backwards," Jack agreed.

Boyd smiled and looked at Sandra. "I like them."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I thought you might. See you later."

Boyd suddenly became serious and looked at Grace. "Can I talk to you?"

"Of course. My office or yours?"

"Yours, it's closer."

Grace didn't bother pointing out it was the same distance to both; she assumed there was a reason Boyd wanted to go to her office instead of his. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I've got to go out. There's something I've got to do," he said in a quiet voice, staring at the floor.

"Your ex-wife?"

Boyd nodded. "I have to tell her, Grace. She needs to know."

"Of course." She paused. "Do you want me to come with you? I'll stay in the car."

"No, I'll be alright." He turned, but stopped with his hand on the door handle. "But you'll be here when I get back, right?"

Grace smiled reassuringly at him. "I'll be here when you get back, Boyd. I'm not going anywhere, I told you that."

"I know, but you left once."

"Yes, and if you start yelling like you did then, I might leave again."

"So no yelling?"

"Only in moderation, and not at me." Grace made a shooing motion with her hands. "Now go before you lose your nerve."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"What is it now?" Karl snapped irritably when the two men walked into his surgery.

"Dr. Morgan, I'm…," Spencer started.

"Yes, yes, I know. DI Jordan and Mr Standing. My secretary told me," Karl interrupted. "Look, I am very busy."

"We want to talk to you about Tommy Draper, Dr. Morgan," Gerry said. "You lied to us. You said you hadn't seen him since school, but you were in touch with him right up until he disappeared."

Karl wasn't quick enough to mask his surprise at being caught, and Spencer didn't give him time to recover. "Did you know Tommy was actually the son of Bruce and Michelle Greene?"

"What? No!" Karl exclaimed. "Are you serious?"

"Very," Gerry said.

"Well…no, I didn't know."

Spencer smiled. "Okay, thank you. We're sorry to have bothered you. We'll show ourselves out."

"He knew," Gerry said as they reached the car.

"I think so," Spencer replied.

Karl took several deep breaths after they had left, counted to fifty and then reached for his phone.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Boyd knocked on the door and shuffled his feet in an attempt to keep warm. He hated this part of his job, but it was even worse delivering bad news to someone he knew.

"Hi," he said when his ex-wife opened the door.

"Peter?" she replied incredulously.

"Yeah. Look, I'm sorry to just drop by like this. Can I come in?"

She hesitated before answered. "Sure. What's happened?"

Ignoring her question, Boyd said, "Where am I going?"

"Kitchen, second on the left."

"Thanks."

Mary took in Boyd's awkward stance and knew it was bad. "Coffee?"

"No, thanks." He took a deep breath. "Sit down. Please."

She was right, it was bad; Boyd never said please.

Staring at the floor, and imagining Grace was there holding his hand, Boyd told Mary what had happened to their son. When he had finished, she was crying, and he did something he had hardly done when they were married; he hugged her. She held onto him until she had sobbed herself dry.

"I'm sorry," Boyd said as he stood at the front door, ready to leave. "I should have been a better father, a better husband - a better person - but I wasn't. If I had, then maybe Joe…."

Mary put her finger on his lips. "Don't. 'Ifs' won't bring him back, Peter." She moved her hand to his cheek and looked at him critically. "You have changed, though. Whoever she is, she's good for you."

"What makes you think it's a woman?" he asked.

Mary smiled. "I know you." She caressed his cheek lightly with her thumb before dropping her hand to her side. "Goodbye, Peter."

"Bye." He walked back to the car, wondering if Mary was right, that Grace was good for him. Needing time to think, to make the right decision, Boyd headed in the opposite direction to the Metropolitan police building.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

It was late when Boyd finally returned to the offices, so late that everyone had gone home. After leaving his ex-wife, Boyd had gone to the cemetery to 'see' Mel. He had told her everything that had happened recently, from Sarah to working with the other cold case squad, to Joe and finally his feelings for Grace. He found it easier to talk to a grave than a real person, and as he talked, Boyd knew he was making the right decision, whether it worked out or not. It was only when he started shivering that he realised the sun had set long ago and it was time he was going. Placing a hand on Mel's grave, Boyd thanked her, told her she was still missed, and left the graveyard, feeling quite calm and settled despite everything that had happened.

He was surprised to see a single light on in his office, and even more surprised when he saw Grace curled up on his couch. He knew she had said she would wait, but he didn't actually think she was stay that long. She had one hand under her cheek, and the other was clutching the cushion that was serving as a pillow. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was regular, and Boyd couldn't help but think how peaceful she looked when she was asleep.

He knelt down next to the couch and just looked at her. Unable to help himself, he brushed his fingers across her cheek.

"Mmm," Grace murmured, and Boyd smiled. "Your fingers are cold."

"Sorry."

"That's okay." Grace opened her eyes and stretched before sitting up. "Ooo, ouch. Oh, I'm too old for sleeping on couches."

"You're not old, Grace," Boyd said quietly.

She smiled. "Thank you. Are you okay? You were gone a long time."

"I went to…see Mel."

"Ah. Did it help?"

Boyd nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, it did. Why haven't you gone home?"

"I said I'd still be here when you got back, Boyd," Grace told him.

Her simple gesture overwhelmed Boyd and he bowed his head, wanting desperately to speak but unable to find the words. Grace reached for him and pulled his head onto her lap again, and his hands held her knees as he sat heavily on the floor. Grace held him for a while before she doubled over and leant her cheek against the top of his head.

"I'm glad you're here, Grace," Boyd whispered some time later, hoping those simple words were enough to convince her how much she meant to him. Judging from Grace's reply, Boyd decided it was.

"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," she told him, planting a soft kiss on his hair.

TBC


	15. Hugs

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"So he was lying?" Boyd asked the next day.

Spencer nodded. "Dr. Morgan knew the Greenes were Tommy's parents, we're almost certain of it."

"I reckon he's been in touch with Tommy since his disappearance too," Gerry said.

"How did the meeting with the DAC go?" Boyd asked Sandra.

She rolled her eyes. "Same as usual."

"Meaning he complained and told you what to do, and you told some lies and ignored him," Brian said.

Sandra smiled. "Yeah, something like that."

"It won't be long before the commissioner sticks nose in to see what we're doing as well," Spencer said.

"That's fine, as long as he doesn't mind it being chopped off," Gerry replied.

Grace shook her head. "I've never spent so much time around so many violent people."

Gerry looked affronted. "We're not violent, we're just…."

"Expressive," Jack finished for him.

Brian nodded his agreement. "Exactly."

"Yes…. Yes, that's right…. Thank you!" Stella put the phoned down, counted to ten and then exclaimed, "Yes!" loudly. All heads turned to her. "Sorry."

"I take it that was good news?" Eve asked.

Stella beamed. "It was. I've got a lead for Tommy Draper."

Boyd looked at her in awe. "How?"

"Well, instead of looking for Tommy Draper, I searched for a Tommy Greene living in the UK. Nothing. So I looked for Tommy Draper leaving the country in March or April 1990. Nothing. So then I tried Tommy Greene."

"And?" Spencer asked.

"Tommy Greene, twenty years old, flew out of Heathrow on April twenty ninth 1990. His ticket was one way, destination Toronto," Stella replied.

Grace looked at Boyd. "Scott said something about Canada."

Boyd nodded. "Looks like Tommy wasn't lying after all."

"But where did he get the money?" Gerry asked.

"Lee, Karl or Jake," Brian suggested. "Or all three."

"Phone, Boyd," Grace said, hearing a ringing tone coming from his office.

"Is there any way we can track him in Canada?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, but it's going to take a while. Lot of red tape and different channels to go through," Brian replied.

"We'd better get started then, hadn't we?" Sandra said.

"Shouldn't take long with…nine of us working on it." Spencer smiled, knowing everyone noticed his pause as he counted up how many people were in the office.

Eve shook her head. "Eight. I'm going back to work. Shout if you need me!"

"Seven. The commissioner wants to see me right now," Boyd said sourly, walking out of the office.

"Be nice, Boyd!" Grace called after him.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Boyd's meeting lasted until lunch time, and he was in a foul mood when he returned. But instead of yelling at them all to make himself feel better, he took Sandra to one side and spoke to her quietly. She just nodded to everything he said, replying with one word answers.

"Spence, go and get Eve, please," Boyd said, and Grace raised her eyebrows in surprise. When the DI returned with the scientist a few moments later, Boyd turned to Sandra. "We'll be back in a couple of hours."

"Okay. Enjoy yourselves."

"Erm, where are we going?" Stella asked, following Boyd out of the office.

Grace shrugged. "Search me."

"Pub lunch, my shout. Any complaints?" Boyd called back to them.

Spencer grinned. "Not from me."

"Me either," Eve agreed.

"Don't we get a pub lunch?" Gerry asked Sandra.

She shook her head. "Boyd wants to do some bonding with his team, and he thought we might like to be alone for a while as well."

"That was thoughtful of him," Brian said.

"Yeah, it surprised me too," Sandra replied.

"Since we're staying here then, I'll go to the cafeteria and get lunch in," Gerry offered.

Brian stood and stretched his back. "I'll come with you."

"Jack?" Gerry asked.

"Sure. I could do with the walk."

They'd just got through the doors when the phone rang, and Jack turned to see Sandra answer it. He stopped, his policeman's instincts picking something up.

"Go on, I'll catch you up," he said, and Gerry just nodded.

Jack slipped back into the office, watching Sandra as she listened to whoever was on the other end of the phone, and he wished something would change between them. Anything. He hated how distant she had become from him, but it was his own fault in a way. But as Jack had said to Grace, he thought Sandra knew about her father. He thought that the first thing she would have done, when old enough, was to read his record. He knew it was what he would have done.

Sandra's posture tensed, and Jack took an involuntary step towards her. He watched as she muttered something into the receiver and put the phone down. For a moment, time seemed to stand still, and all noise had ceased to exist. Then suddenly, Sandra swayed.

"Umph!" Jack took two quick strides forward and caught the Superintendent, holding her arms firmly to steady her.

Sandra didn't know who had caught her - she thought she was the only one in the office - and at that moment, she didn't care. She turned and buried her head into the shirt the person was wearing, not bothering to look to see who it was. She felt them stiffen, as if unsure as to what to do, and then slowly, they wrapped their arms around her. Sandra listened to his heartbeat - she knew it was a man because his tie was pressing into her cheek - and found it soothed her. His hand rubbed her back slightly, not in an overly familiar gesture, but enough to comfort her.

Jack looked at the blonde head on his shoulder with a slightly mortified expression. He was almost certain that if Sandra knew it was him she was clinging to, she'd punch him, and having his nose broken - or his jaw - wasn't on his list of things to do that day.

"Jack?"

Jack turned as much as he could to see Gerry and Brian walking into the room with lunch. "Gerry, can you -?" He looked down at Sandra, and then back at his colleague.

Gerry nodded in understanding. "Yeah, sure." He walked over to the pair and gently prised Sandra away from Jack. "Come on, come here."

Sandra was aware that the person she was leaning on had changed; the shirt felt different, the smell was different, and the heartbeat was different. She still felt comforted, but this man couldn't help her.

*Jack.*

Was it Jack she had been holding onto before? Jack who she thought she hated.

"What's happened?" Brian asked, looking at Jack.

"I don't know. Sandra got a phone call and the next thing I knew, she looked like she was going to collapse." He looked at the Superintendent, then at Gerry. "Is she okay?" he asked softly.

Gerry nodded, having noticed Sandra's sobbing had finally stopped. "I think so."

The Superintendent pulled back from Gerry and started to wipe her eyes. A white handkerchief appeared in front of her, and she looked at who was offering it. "Thanks, Brian," she said in a shaky voice.

Brian just smiled briefly and stepped back again. "What's happened?" Gerry asked.

"It's…my mum. The home just rang. She's…she's died."

A tense silence filled the room. None of the retired officers were quite sure what to do, and they were all quietly wishing that one of the women from the other cold case unit would come back. While they were close as friends, comforting their boss wasn't something they knew how to do.

"Do you want one of us to go with you?" Brian asked eventually. "To the home, I mean. To…to sort things out."

In that moment, Sandra forgave him. In truth, she hadn't really been angry at Brian, although the fact that he knew about her father's death and kept the knowledge from her had irked her. But he wasn't directly involved, so forgiveness had come easier.

"Thanks, but we have a case to work on," she replied. "I'll be fine."

Gerry stood up straight and held his hand up. "No, you won't. Look, Sandra, you don't have to deal with this on your own, and you shouldn't."

"What about Chris?" Jack suggested quietly. "I can call him, if you like. Get him to meet you?"

"He's out of town, won't be back until tomorrow," Sandra replied, not looking at Jack. "I'll be fine on my own. Besides, Brian doesn't like nursing homes and you, Gerry, have a habit of behaving like an over-protective father."

Gerry looked affronted. "Charming."

"I can drive you," Jack offered. "I'll stay in the car when we reach the home. I wouldn't want to intrude."

Sandra finally looked at him, her pale blue eyes a storm of emotions. She had found comfort in her mentor moments ago, a man she wanted to hate for lying to her, and here he was offering to be her shoulder to lean on again.

*Can I keep this professional?* Sandra wondered. *I'm not ready to forgive him yet, but if I had to choose between the three of them to go with me, it'd be Jack. Oh, bloody hell.*

"Alright," she replied eventually. "But you stay in the car. I can handle things."

Jack just nodded. "I'm ready when you are."

"Let me grab my bag."

As Sandra disappeared into the office she was sharing with Boyd, Brian looked at Jack. "Is that a good idea?"

"What? Me offering my support?" Jack replied.

"I think what Brian meant…," Gerry started, but Jack cut him off.

"I know what he meant, Gerry. You both think I'm doing this to wheedle my way back into Sandra's good books somehow. Quite frankly, I'm disgusted you'd think I'd try to do that," he said firmly . "I'm also amazed at how stupid you two are. Do you really think it would be that easy with her? No, I don't think I did anything wrong at the time, and no, I wouldn't have done anything differently. And I think if something like that happened now, Sandra would do exactly the same as I did. You know what it's like, Brian; sometimes people die, whether it's an accident or on purpose."

An anguished expression appeared on Brian's face. "Jack…."

"That was uncalled for, Jack," Gerry said, frowning. "I don't think Brian needs to be reminded of the reason he left the force."

"And I don't need to be reminded of a man who killed himself because he made a mistake, but I am, every day!" Jack hissed angrily. "By his daughter! A woman who now blames *me* for her father's death. And you know what? I wish that was true because by God, it would make all of this easier to deal with!"

Silence descended on the bullpen, broken only by the rhythmic ticking of a clock somewhere. For once, neither Gerry nor Brian knew what to say, and it didn't occur to anyone that Sandra might have heard everything that had been said.

It was only when she emerged from Boyd's office a moment later that they remembered she was there. "Right, I'm ready." There was nothing in her tone of voice to indicate she'd heard their exchange, but it was inevitable that she had.

"Let's go," Jack said, his voice flat.

They walked out in silence and after they'd gone, Gerry sank wearily into a chair. "That could've gone better."

Brian sat down next to him, took his glasses off and dragged a hand over his face. "You can say that again."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Why is it that I don't see you for ages, and then I can't get rid of you?" Karl sniped.

Lee stared at him. "What the hell is the matter with you? You never used to be this surly."

Karl sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry, I'm just finding it hard, you know? Things have been quiet for seventeen years and then they suddenly start dragging everything back up." He paused. "The police know that Tommy was Bruce and Michelle's son."

"Fuck!" Lee swore. "What else do they know?"

"That we were all in touch with Tommy up until he disappeared."

"Pissing hell, that is not good." She started pacing. "There's only one thing we can do now."

"Which is -?"

"Bring him home."

"No."

"It's only a matter of time before they track him down, Karl, I told you that before. And if they get hold of him…." Lee stopped pacing and massaged the back of her neck. "You know Tommy wouldn't be able to stand being questioned."

"He wouldn't be safe here," Karl argued.

"He would. We could keep him safe. We've been doing a bloody good job of it for the past seventeen years."

"Will bringing him home help Jake's chances of being released?" Karl asked.

Lee shook her head. "I spoke to his lawyer and with the new evidence the police have found, Jake will be cleared. It's just a matter of time."

"So where's the point in bringing Tommy home? Unless you want to shop him."

Lee lunged forward, grabbing Karl by the throat and pinning him against the wall, despite their differences in height. "Don't you ever say that again or I'll make you fucking sorry," she said in a low voice, her eyes flashing dangerously. "You know I would never do that."

Karl stiffened, ready to fight back, then suddenly all the tension went out of his body and he sagged, leaning against Lee. "I miss him."

"So do I." She rubbed his back. "Talk to me, Karl. I haven't seen you this wound up for a long time."

"It doesn't matter. I just want this to be over."

"Soon," Lee promised. "It will be soon."

"And until then?"

"We give them some truth to be going on with. I'll talk with Jake."

"Fencing again?"

She shrugged. "If it works."

"And when it stops working?" Karl asked.

Lee sighed. She didn't have that answer.

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"Good lunch?" Gerry asked Eve when they returned.

She smiled. "It was great, thanks. What about you?"

Brian shook his head. "Don't ask."

"Where are Sandra and Jack?" Boyd asked, looking around.

"Don't ask," Brian repeated, resting his forehead on his hands.

Grace came and perched on his desk, being careful not to disturb anything. "What's happened?"

Gerry sighed and sat down in his chair. "Sandra's mum's died. Jack's taken her to the nursing home to get everything sorted. I wouldn't expect them back again today."

Brian suddenly looked at Boyd. "Did you ever meet her father?"

Boyd shook his head. "Sandra's the first Pullman I've come across in the force. Why?"

Brian and Gerry looked at each other, then the ex-DI shook his head. "Never mind."

"It's not our place to tell you," Gerry added, already recognising when Boyd's temper was about to rear its ugly head.

But Boyd just smiled and nodded. "I respect that."

"Well, we'd better get on with trying to track Tommy Greene down, hadn't we?" Spencer said, picking up his phone.

TBC


	16. Diversions

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Jack awoke with a start the next morning and he swore as he sat up. "I'm getting too old to sleep on a couch," he muttered, stretching his aching body carefully. As he rubbed sleep from his eyes, he listened carefully. There was silence in the apartment, so he assumed Sandra was still asleep.

He had driven her to the nursing home the day before and had stayed in the car as he had promised. But after twenty minutes, someone had come out for him. Apparently Sandra wasn't as strong as she thought she was and she couldn't concentrate enough to fill out the paperwork.

Jack helped her but kept his distance. He made sure she signed everything that needed signing, and that the signature was in the right place. He packed her mother's belongings away, then he had accompanied Sandra to the morgue so she could see her mother.

 

When the sheet had been pulled back, Sandra grabbed Jack's hand and held it so tightly he thought she was trying to break it. They left the mortuary and Jack drove Sandra home in silence. It was only when they arrived at her flat that she spoke.

"Stay," was all Sandra said, but it was enough.

Jack had cooked a light meal for her, which she ate half of, then he made her a hot milk, pouring a generous amount of whisky in it. Sandra drank it all and fell asleep straight away. Jack just sat in silence in the living room, a tumbler of whisky in his hand, staring into space. He wasn't used to being away from home and he missed Mary; it was a sign of the strength of their friendship that none of his colleagues thought Jack strange for having his wife buried in his garden.

When Sandra awoke a few hours later, she wandered into the living room and seemed glad to see Jack. As he made her a drink, she started talking.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

Jack just shrugged. "That's what friends are for. And despite what you think of me, I still think of you as a friend."

Sandra ran her hand through her hair. "Christ, Jack, why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what? That I was investigating your father and that he killed himself?" he replied. "What would that have achieved?"

"Trust. That's the problem; I can't trust you now. You destroyed that."

Jack handed Sandra her drink and then sat opposite her. "Distance yourself from the situation for a moment and then put yourself in my shoes. What would you have done?"

Sandra was silent for a long time, but when she did speak, it was in a quiet voice and her head was bowed. "The same thing." She looked up. "But he was my father and I loved him."

"He was my colleague and I respected him, which is why I told him about the investigation," Jack replied. "That was my mistake. Would you have preferred if your father were still alive?"

"Yes," Sandra said without hesitation. "I'd rather he was alive and in jail than dead and a coward."

*'Ah, now we're getting to the problem,'* Jack thought. "He wasn't a coward, he just made a mistake. Like Brian did."

"I know, but I thought I could trust my mother and she lied to my since I was fourteen. I - I was so horrible to her, and then she died too." Sandra started to crumble again, and Jack barely hesitated before crossing to sit next to her. He held her as she cried and she let him.

"And you thought you could trust me and I lied to you," Jack said. "I can only apologise and hope you'll understand one day. In the meantime, maybe you can let me regain your trust and repair our friendship."

"It won't be easy," Sandra replied.

"Nothing worthwhile ever is."

In that moment, Sandra forgave him. She decided life was too short to bear such grudges, though she would never be able to forget his betrayal.

Jack thought over that conversation the night before as he made Sandra breakfast and left it on the counter, along with a note to say he'd gone home to change and would be back soon.

He was surprised to see she was waiting for him when he returned an hour later. The drive to work was spent in silence, but it was nowhere near as uncomfortable as it had been recently.

Just before they entered the office, Sandra stopped and put her hand lightly on Jack's arm. "Thank you."

He didn't smile but his face softened. "You're welcome."

"Morning, Jack. Morning, Sandra," Grace greeted them. "We were all sorry to hear about your mum."

"Thanks," Sandra said quietly.

"Morning," Jack replied, heading to the coffee machine and pouring himself and Sandra a drink.

"Is Boyd in?" Sandra asked.

"Office," Spencer replied, pointing.

Jack looked around. "Sorry we're late…."

Gerry just waved his hand. "Don't worry about it, mate." They all heard the door to Boyd and Sandra's office shut.

"Is everything okay?" Brian asked.

Jack nodded. "We're getting there. Look, about yesterday…."

Brian shook his head. "We were in the wrong as well. Forget about it."

Jack smiled. "Thanks. So, what are we working on?"

"Tracking Tommy Greene," Stella said. "And Boyd wants to try questioning Jake, Lee and Karl *again*. He agrees with Gerry that at least one of them, if not all of them, has been in touch with Tommy since he left the country."

"Any idea what that is about?" Gerry asked, pointing at Boyd and Sandra talking.

Jack turned to see what he was talking about and then nodded slowly. "I think so." Sandra had explained about her mother and Boyd's son the night before. "Actually, Grace, can I have a word?"

Grace looked surprised. "Of course." She led Jack into her office.

"I want an office," Brian muttered.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Boyd, I have something to tell you," Sandra said.

"That sounds serious."

"It is. It's about your son."

Boyd sat down. "What about him?"

"The old lady he saved…was my mother." Sandra sighed. "I only found out the other day, when you found out about Joe. I'm sorry. I - I didn't get chance to talk to my mum about it more."

Boyd just stared at her in surprise, unmoving, and Sandra, unsure what to do, looked around for Grace. Spotting her and Jack in her office, Sandra motioned for them.

"I told Grace," Jack said as they entered Boyd's office a moment later. "I thought she should know.

Sandra nodded. "Thanks."

Grace walked over to Boyd and squeezed his shoulder. "Boyd?"

"It's a small world, Grace."

She smiled. "Yes, it is. Are you okay?" The question was directed at Sandra and Jack as well as Boyd.

Everyone nodded. "I don't know about you, but I'm ready for doing some work," Sandra said, wiping her eyes as Jack hovered protectively near her shoulder.

"I want to yell at someone. Who can I yell at, Grace?" Boyd asked.

She gave a small laugh as Sandra and Jack smiled at each other. "Come on, we'll find you someone."

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"Right," Boyd said loudly as he entered the bullpen. "We are going to question Jake Rawley, Lee Hopkins and Karl Morgan again, and we are going to get the truth from them this time about when they last spoke to Tommy Draper."

"Greene," Stella corrected.

"Whatever," Boyd replied. "Now, Grace, find me someone to yell at."

"Karl Morgan. He seems most likely to crack," she replied. "But no hitting him."

"Why don't you come with me then you can keep an eye on me?"

She smiled. "Okay."

"Spence, you and Brian go to see Jake Rawley again," Boyd said.

"Jack and I will talk to Lee Hopkins," Sandra offered.

Brian, Gerry and Jack all looked at each other in surprise; things definitely were improving amongst the team.

"Okay, people, get to it!" Boyd told them.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Not again," Lee said as she opened the door. "No, you can't come in, before you ask."

"Miss Hopkins, we know you lied to us about the last time you had contact Tommy Draper. We also have fresh evidence that puts him right at the scene of the crime, so unless you start cooperating, I'll arrest you for perverting the course of justice and obstructing a police investigation, and that's just to start with," Sandra replied bluntly.

Lee stared at her and then sighed in defeat. "Come in."

Sandra smiled pleasantly. "Thank you."

"So, Miss Hopkins, when was the last time you saw Tommy Draper?" Jack asked.

"That part I didn't lie about. I haven't seen him for seventeen years," she replied.

"Okay, when did you speak to him last?" Sandra inquired.

Lee fiddled with the hem of her jumper. "A couple of years ago."

Jack looked at her carefully. "Why haven't you spoken to him since then?"

"Because he's dead."

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"Mr Rawley, you lied to us about Tommy Draper," Spencer greeted Jake.

"When did you have contact with him last?" Brian asked, not giving the man time to recover.

"What? I haven't lied at all. In case you've forgotten, I've been in here for seventeen years, and as far as I know, Tommy disappeared about the same time I was arrested," Jake replied. "So I suggest you get your facts straight before barging in next time. Good day."

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"I know why you're here, and I'm sorry I lied," Karl said quickly.

Grace almost laughed at the petulant expression on Boyd's face, having been denied someone to yell at. "Now would be an excellent time to tell us the truth, Dr. Morgan, or I'll have you arrested for obstructing a police investigation, perverting the course of justice, and that's just to start with," Boyd told him quietly.

Karl gulped. "I was in touch with Tommy up until about a year ago. My letters suddenly started being returned because Tommy didn't live at that address any more. I have no idea where he is now, and that's the truth."

"We'll need his last known address," Boyd said.

"Of course."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Fiver says they come back with different answers," Gerry said to Stella.

Stella shook her head. "I agree with you, so I'm not betting."

Gerry pouted. "You're no fun."

Stella smiled and winked at him. "How do you know?"

Gerry stared at her and then laughed. "Are you two flirting?" Eve asked as she walked in.

"Us?" Gerry asked.

"Of course not," Stella replied too innocently. "Besides, I know he belongs to you."

Eve just shook her head and smiled. "I'm not sure I want him."

"Oh, charming!"

"Are you talking about me?" Spencer asked, walking into the bullpen.

"He can't be talking about himself," Brian replied.

"Do you mind?" Gerry asked acidly.

Brian looked at him. "No."

Spencer looked at Eve and Stella. "Did you miss me?"

"No," they replied in unison.

"Ooo, such negativity isn't good for working in, you know," Grace told them.

Spencer and Gerry pointed to Brian, Stella and Eve, who pointed back. "They started it," they all said together.

"Oh God, it's like being back in the schoolyard!" Boyd exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air.

"You have no idea," Jack muttered, following Sandra into the bullpen.

Sandra took her coat off and put it in the office. "Just wait until they get their handbags out."

"So how did you get on?" Eve asked quickly before the childish barbs could continue.

Spencer looked at Sandra and Grace. "Ladies first."

Boyd looked at Jack. "I think we should be insulted by that."

"I don't know about you, but I am," Jack replied.

Sandra looked at Grace. "After you."

Grace smiled. "No, after you."

"Will *someone* tell us what happened," Stella said exasperatedly. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Sandra told her with a small smile. "Okay, Lee told us Tommy died a couple of years ago."

"Do we believe her?" Eve asked.

"Jake said he hadn't spoken to or seen Tommy in seventeen years because he's been in jail, so that fits," Brian replied.

Boyd smiled. "Karl said that he lost touch with Tommy a year ago."

Grace shook her head. "They're fencing."

"Come again?" Spencer said.

"Fencing, Spence," Grace repeated, and then noticed the blank looks everyone else was giving her. "They're working together to evade answering our questions properly. Like I said before, they're protecting Tommy. It's possible that one of them is telling the truth, but it's also possible that none of them are."

"How do we break the fence then?" Brian asked.

"With Tommy," Jack replied quietly. "He's the joining factor for all of them. Remove him, the structure falls apart."

"That address that Karl Morgan gave you doesn't check out," Stella said, looking up from the computer.

"In what way?" Boyd asked.

"It doesn't exist."

"The lying bastard." Boyd looked at Grace. "Now can I go and yell at him?"

Grace groaned. "Not now, Boyd. Can't you wait until Monday?"

"I suppose so," he replied grudgingly.

"Jake Rawley isn't completely in the clear, you know," Spencer said. "There's his confession and his possession of the murder weapon to take into account."

Brian took his glasses off. "DNA wouldn't help, would it?"

"Hang on, it might." Gerry stood up and went to the board. "Jake had the murder weapon, right?"

"Yeah," Sandra replied for everyone.

"And there was a third sample of DNA on the knife that we know belongs to offspring of the Greenes, but we're assuming it's Tommy's," Gerry continued. "How do we know that? How do we know it's not Jake's?" He looked at Eve. "I know you said that you didn't think it could be Jake's as he didn't have a mark on him, but what if it *is* his?"

"But that would mean that Jake is the Greenes son," Grace said, frowning, "which in turn would make Tommy his brother."

"That would explain why he's protecting him," Stella stated.

"That's a pretty big leap, Gerry," Sandra said sceptically.

Gerry looked at Eve. "Is there *any* way we can get hold of Jake's DNA?"

"Maybe the prison has a sample, if he's had any blood taken for some reason since he's been there," she replied. "I'll check."

Boyd stared at her. "You mean you didn't before?"

Eve stared back. "No one asked me to. Look, I'll put the call in now and if there is anything, it'll be waiting for me bright and early Monday morning, okay?"

"This is just the laid back, slipshod attitude that the commissioner is looking for," Boyd started, but Sandra interrupted him.

"It's something we should have looked into earlier, but let's face it, we've all been distracted on this case so far, starting with the way we were given it," she said. "Then there have been…personal issues for some of us, which have affected all of us."

Boyd sighed. "Your point?"

"We need to go home for the weekend and relax. Then Monday morning, we come back to work and do our jobs as well as we know we can," Sandra replied. "Not in the half-arsed manner we have been going about things."

"Hear hear," Brian said in agreement.

"I want everyone here before nine Monday morning," Boyd told them.

Gerry looked at Eve. "I thought I'd cook tonight, if you like."

She smiled at him. "Just let me call the prison, then I'm all yours."

"Really?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. Eve just laughed and disappeared into the lab.

"Come on, Brian, I'll give you a lift home. Sandra?" Jack said.

"Can you drop me at Chris'? He should be home now," she replied.

Jack smiled. "Of course. Night, everybody."

"So, you up for some clubbing?" Spencer asked Stella.

"If you're paying," she replied, following him out.

"Any plans for the weekend, Grace?" Boyd asked.

She shrugged. "The usual - washing and housework."

Boyd smiled. "You can do my house afterwards if you like."

"No chance."

"I'll cook."

"You don't cook."

"I can order take away."

"No, Boyd."

"How about a meal out then?"

Grace looked at him. "Is this an attempt to seduce me?" she asked playfully.

"No. That would involve wine," he replied with a smile. "Although I do have a bottle in my office…."

"Boyd!"

"…And a few more at my house."

Grace shook her head and headed out of the office. "Good night, Boyd. See on Monday."

"You know where I am if you get bored!" he called after her.

TBC


	17. Interludes

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Chris opened the front door and gave a genuine smile when he saw who was stood there. "Sandra," he greeted the policewoman. "I wasn't expecting to see you tonight."

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

His smile grew as he took her hand and led her into the house, kissing her cheek as they walked. "Of course not. You know I'm always glad to see you. Can I get you a drink?"

"Please. Can I sit down?" Sandra asked.

Chris tilted his head on one side and looked at her. "You know you don't have to ask. My home is your home."

She smiled. "Thanks." As he disappeared into the kitchen, Sandra took her jacket and shoes off, and curled up on the couch, letting the warmth of the house thaw her as it was bitterly cold outside.

"Here you go." Chris handed her a glass of wine and sat down next to her, one arm going quickly about her shoulders. "Is everything okay?"

Sandra snuggled into Chris' side. "It is now."

He smiled. "How's work?"

"Slow. It's like trying to break into Fort Knox."

Chris kissed the top of Sandra's head. "I'm sure you'll get there in the end."

"I sorted things out with Jack."

"Good. How did that come about?"

Sandra put her glass down and wrapped her arms around Chris. "My mother. She…she died."

Chris put his glass down too and held her. "Do you want to tell me about it?"

"If you want to know."

He kissed her again. "I wouldn't have asked if I didn't. Are you comfy enough?"

She looked up at him. "Go and get the wine bottle, then I'll begin."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Mmm," Eve murmured appreciatively. "Mmm, this is really good."

Gerry regarded her over his glass of wine. "You sound surprised."

"Well, I am. You don't seem the type to cook."

His eyes sparkled. "I'm full of surprises."

"I bet you are," Eve replied. "So tell me, why isn't someone like you married?"

Gerry gave a small smile and put his glass down. "Ah. I was wondering when we'd come to this."

"Come to what?" Eve asked, taking a sip of wine.

"I have been married, Eve. Three times, actually. And divorced, three times." Gerry refilled their glasses. "I've also got four daughters and a grandson. Although one of my daughters, the oldest, Emily, she - she isn't really mine. I knew her mum a long time ago, and Emily found me when her mum died. She thinks I'm her dad and I - well, I didn't have the heart to tell her I wasn't." He barked a short laugh and shook his head. "I can't believe I just told you that. The only other person that knows is Sandra." Gerry looked at Eve, his expression serious. "I'm not a young man - and you have no idea how much it pains me to say that - and I don't mix well with commitment. I've got more baggage than the cargo hold of an aeroplane, and more bad habits than good ones." He sighed. "I'll understand if you want to leave."

Eve dabbed her mouth with her napkin and stood up. But instead of heading towards the door, like Gerry expected her to, she walked up to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "No, you're not a young man any more," she agreed. "Everyone has baggage of a certain degree, and the fact that yours comes in the form of three ex-wives, four kids and a grandson doesn't matter to me. I have bad habits too, as well as some downright weird ones. And as for commitment - I'm not the marrying type and I'm not looking for lifelong devotion." Eve moved to the side and put her hand on Gerry's cheek, forcing him to look at her. "All I want is someone to share life with, one day at a time, and someone who knows how to have fun. Right now, you fit the bill. So unless you feel otherwise, now would be a good time to kiss me."

Gerry grinned as he stood up. "I thought you'd never ask."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Boyd couldn't settle to do anything. While his relationship with Grace had undoubtedly improved, he still hadn't actually said out loud exactly what he felt for her, and now it was starting to nag at him. Boyd was not a man known for his patience, as anyone who knew him could attest to, but he was unsure how to proceed. After all, this was Grace, the only woman who had always been around. True, she had left once, but she had come back, and when she returned, Boyd silently promised himself that he would never lose her again.

"Oh, for God's sake, man, stop dawdling like an old bloody woman and just go and see her," he berated himself quietly. Grabbing his car keys and grimacing at having to go out in the rain, Boyd headed to the front door.

He opened it and froze. Stood there, with her hand raised as if ready to knock, was Grace.

"Oh," she exclaimed, jumping.

"I was just coming to see you," Boyd said, smiling.

"Great minds think alike. Can I come in?"

"Sure." He stood to one side and hoped Grace couldn't hear his heart pounding. His mouth was suddenly dry, and in a corner of his brain, Boyd wondered why he was so nervous.

"Right," Grace said without preamble, "point me in the direction of the housework."

Boyd stared at her. "You're not serious, are you?"

"I'm always serious, Boyd. You should know that." Her eyes were twinkling mischievously.

He smiled. "I'm afraid there isn't any."

Grace walked around his living room, observing everything with a critical eye. "I can see dust an inch thick on these shelves," she told him. "And I don't even want to imagine how big your ironing pile is."

"You don't have to do this, Grace," Boyd said seriously.

She turned and looked at him, her expression soft. "I want to. I know you act like you're okay, Boyd, but you've been through a lot lately. Let me mother you, just this once."

He smiled again and held his hands up in surrender. "Okay," he said quietly. "Am I allowed to make coffee for you?"

"No," she replied. "But I'll have tea, please."

"Tea it is."

A few hours later and the house was tidy, and if Boyd or Grace were surprised at how easily they fell into a domesticated pattern with each other, neither said anything. Then Boyd shocked Grace by cooking, and doing it well.

"Okay, what have you done with the real Boyd?" she asked as they ate.

"I'm hurt, Grace," Boyd replied.

"Mmm." She didn't sound convinced.

Afterwards, as Grace washed the dishes and Boyd dried them, he found himself imagining what it would be like to have Grace around all the time. Taking a deep breath, Boyd started to speak.

"Grace, I have something to admit, and it isn't going to be easy for me."

"Go on," she encouraged him quietly, not looking at him. Grace knew eye contact with Boyd at a time like this wouldn't help.

"Sarah was right; I do have feelings for you. I didn't realise it properly until recently. I am a man, after all," he said, attempting to make light of the situation briefly, and he saw Grace smile. "After I went to see Mary about Joe, I was glad to find you still in the office. I was glad that I had you to come back to." He put the towel down and leant against the counter. "I enjoy your company, Grace, though it might not always seem that way. And I would like it if - if we spent more time together, outside of work. I want to get to know you properly, Grace."

The profiler turned and stood in front of him. She tilted her face up and smiled at Boyd as one soapsud-covered hand caressed his cheek. "It's not going to be easy," she told him.

"Any life with me in it wouldn't be. But I want to try, Grace."

"Really?" she asked him.

He nodded slowly. "Really."

"Hmm," Grace said thoughtfully, her hand still on his cheek.

"What? If you're going to say no, Grace, please do it now…."

"Boyd."

"Yeah?"

"Shut up and kiss me."

TBC


	18. Actions

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Any joy with getting Jake Rawley's DNA from the prison?" Boyd asked Eve as they arrived in the office on Monday morning. After spending all of Saturday with Grace, Boyd had spent Sunday alone and was feeling unaccountably prickly.

She shook her head. "They're not at their most cooperative on a Friday afternoon," she replied, "but   
I'm going to make getting an answer from them my mission for today."

"We need to make a sign for the lab door," Spencer said. "'Do not enter if you value your life - woman on a mission'."

"That's right. And once that's accomplished, I'm going in search of your sense of humour." Eve smiled and headed towards the lab.

"That put you in your place," Brian said to Spencer, who just shrugged.

"You have to let them win sometimes," he replied.

"What are you thinking, Grace?" Sandra asked, noticing the profiler studying the board.

"These three…." She pointed to Jake, Karl and Lee's names on the board. "…cannot be separated or broken until we find Tommy, that we know. I'm just amazed that he's remained hidden for so long. *Someone, somewhere* has *got* to know where he is."

"No luck yet," Stella said.

"So what do you suggest, Grace?" Boyd asked, sipping his coffee.

"The parents," she replied, turning to look at him. "If Gerry's right and the mystery DNA sample does belong to Jake, then the Rawleys must have adopted him, like the Drapers did with Tommy."

"If that is the case, they might not know that Jake is the Greenes' son," Jack said.

"That's what we need to find out, though, isn't it?" Sandra replied. "I think we should get the Rawleys in."

Boyd shook his head. "All of them."

"Excuse me?"

"I want the Rawleys, the Hopkins' and Mrs Morgan in," Boyd said. "Their children were best of friends, they lived in the same area for years, it's possible they know something." He emphasised the last words clearly.

"Separate them," Brian muttered.

"What?" Sandra asked in an exasperated tone.

Brian looked at her. "Like Grace said, the kids are fencing. Put the parents in a room together and they'll do the same thing because they think they're protecting their child."

"He's right," Jack said.

Sandra held her hands up. "Okay, get them all in." She looked at Boyd. "How do you want to do this?"

"Bring Mr and Mrs Rawley in first and put them in separate rooms. Spence and Brian can talk to one, Stella and Gerry the other," Boyd replied. "Also bring Mrs Morgan in at the same time, but put her in with Grace to wait. Then bring Mr and Mrs Hopkins in, Jack, but keep them in the waiting area. Sandra and I will observe."

Grace looked at him. "What are you up to, Boyd?"

He smiled at her. "Spence, when you, Brian, Stella and Gerry have finished with the Rawleys, take them through to the waiting area with the pretence of taking the Hopkins' into the interview rooms. Grace, you'll take Mrs Morgan into the waiting area at the same time, and if all goes well, we won't need to interview anyone else."

"Deliberate collision tactic," Sandra said, shaking her head.

"You want to bring them together in the hopes that seeing each other after so long will resurface old feelings, so to speak?" Gerry asked.

"It might just work, as well," Brian said.

"There's only one way to find out," Boyd replied.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Mr Rawley, thank you for coming in," Brian said, shaking his hand.

"I'm not sure how I can help," the older man replied, shrugging.

"We just want to know a bit more about Jake," Brian told him. "It'll help us with the case."

"Okay."

"Did your son know the Greenes?"

"Not that I know of."

"He's lying," Sandra said.

Brian ignored the comment. "Are you sure, Mr Rawley? I mean, you lived in the same area as Bruce and Michelle Greene, along with Adam and Liz Morgan and their son Karl, John and Lynne Draper and their son Tommy, and Frank and Kathy Hopkins and their daughter Lee."

With each name mentioned, Mr Rawley's eyes grew a little wider. "He is very good," Boyd said, clearly impressed.

"Like I said, he has his moments," Sandra replied.

"I - no, as far as I know, Jake didn't know the Greenes." Mr Rawley stuttered through his reply.

Spencer leant forward onto the table. "Mr Rawley, you might think you're protecting your son by keeping information from us, but you're not." The older man remained quiet. "Okay, perhaps your wife will tell us."

Spencer and Brian stood up, and Sandra looked to see Gerry and Stella doing the same in the other interview room. "Did they plan this?" she asked Boyd.

He frowned. "They didn't have time. Why?"

Sandra smiled. "They just pulled the same stunt at the same time. Look."

"Well I'll be…." A slow smile spread across Boyd's face. "I think the commissioner and the DAC are going to have a hard time shutting one of us down if they can't separate us."

"Wait!" Mr Rawley said desperately as Spencer and Brian reached the door. "Jake…Jake isn't our son. We adopted him."

"Yes!" Sandra exclaimed.

"Mrs Rawley just said almost the same thing," Boyd told her.

"Do you know who Jake's real parents are?" Brian asked.

Mr Rawley shook his head. "And that's the truth, I swear. Jake came to us from an unstable family. All the adoption papers were in order and no one ever reported him missing, so we never thought anything of it."

"Okay, Spence, Stella, show them out," Boyd said, pulling his mobile out.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Sorry to have kept you waiting, Mrs Morgan, but they're ready for you now," Grace said after putting her phone down. "This way."

Grace led Mrs Morgan into the waiting area just as Spencer, Brian, Stella and Gerry came out with Mr and Mrs Rawley. Jack was stood with Mr and Mrs Hopkins, and Sandra and Boyd soon joined them.

"Well, isn't this cosy?" Jack said.

"Jeff, Martha, what are you doing here?" Mrs Morgan blurted out.

"Helping the police," Mr Rawley replied, not looking at Mrs Morgan. His wife squeezed his hand, an action that didn't go unnoticed by Sandra, who frowned.

"We're sorry for the blunt tactic," Grace told them, "but your children have been lying rather successfully to us and hindering our investigation. We needed to know if you knew anything that could help us."

"Well we don't," Mr Hopkins replied flatly. "Come on, Kathy, let's go."

"Frank, wait," Mrs Rawley said. He turned to the officers. "Can you please give us all a moment alone? We won't leave, I promise."

Boyd and Sandra looked at each other, then Boyd nodded. "Ten minutes, no longer, then we'll be back out."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Eve burst into the bullpen looking triumphant. "I've got a DNA sample from the prison. Apparently, a few years ago, the administration decided to compile a set of DNA records on their inmates, as well as having their fingerprints and photos. After much cajoling, flirting and threatening, I finally got hold of Jake's."

"And?" Boyd asked.

"That's it."

"That's it," he repeated slowly.

Eve stared at him. "I can't make the prison staff work any faster, Boyd. They're sending the documents over by courier, but they might not be here until tomorrow. Sorry."

"Great," he muttered, shaking his head.

Sandra smiled at the scientist. "Good work, Eve."

"Thanks. Nice to know someone appreciates me." Eve looked at Gerry and winked. "You don't need to answer that."

"Now there's a first," Brian said.

"What's that?" Gerry asked.

"You - under the thumb!" Brian started chuckling and Jack soon joined in. Sandra tried not to show any emotion, but a smile crept onto her face without permission.

"At least it explains the bald patch," she said, making her colleagues laugh even harder.

Boyd stared at them incredulously. "We're in the middle of a case, people!"

"Yeah, and we still have five minutes before we've got back out to the parents," Sandra replied calmly.

"Boyd, a word," Grace said, recognising the danger signs. "Now."

As he followed her into her office, Spencer looked at Stella. "Is it me or is she getting better at that?"

Stella just shrugged, but Eve said, "She's getting better."

Spencer looked at her. "You know something, don't you?"

"Maybe," she replied, her eyes twinkling.

Spencer pouted slightly. "But you don't want to share it."

"Boyd and Grace," Brian said to the DI in a meaningful tone.

"What? You've noticed as well?" Gerry made a noise halfway between a cough and a laugh. "They must be being obvious."

Brian glared at his friend. "I'll have you know that there is nothing wrong with my observational skills. I did used to be a copper, you know."

"Grace and Boyd are either an item already, or close to it," Jack told Spencer, speaking over his friends.

Spencer laughed. "Boyd? With Grace? It would never happen."

"It could," Stella said. "Watch them next time their together."

"They're together now," Spencer replied.

"Exactly."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

After Boyd had entered her office, Grace had closed the door and leant against it, waiting for him to look at her, and when he did, it was like the rest of the world melted away.

"You remember Mel, don't you?" she asked quietly. "You remember when we used to laugh out there, whether we were in the middle of a case of not, don't you?" His silence was an answer in itself. "It's their way of coping, Boyd. It's their way of saying that they care about each other, without them actually saying the words. Let them banter; you know they'll get their share of the work done."

"I know, Grace," Boyd said in a slightly dejected tone.

"Then relax."

"I can't."

"Why?"

"I can't, Grace. Isn't that answer good enough for you?" he asked snappishly.

"No, it isn't," Grace snapped back. "Boyd, what is the matter with you? You were fine on Saturday; did something happen yesterday?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"God, woman, you're the psychologist; work it out!" Boyd yelled.

Out in the bullpen, Spencer looked at Stella and shrugged. "They're arguing as usual. What am I supposed to be seeing?"

Stella rolled her eyes. "Keep watching. Just don't be so obvious about it."

"I shouldn't have to work it out, Boyd!" Grace retorted. "If you can't tell me what the problem is, then it obviously isn't that important!" She knew it would be like this. She knew it was just too much to hope that they could have anything approaching a meaningful relationship. Grace turned to open the door, but one word from him stopped her.

"Don't." It was spoken in a low voice, all traces of anger gone.

"Why not?" she asked tiredly, her hand resting on the door handle, her back to him.

"Don't leave me again, please. I - I don't think I could cope." Boyd dropped his voice to a whisper. "I wouldn't survive. I - I missed you, Grace, okay? I want to be with you all the time and I can't stand being away from you, and I hate myself for feeling like that."

Grace let out a gasp, turned quickly and crossed the room to him. "Oh, Boyd," she said, half way between exasperation and affection. She reached out to take his hand and pull him to her. He moved, albeit somewhat reluctantly, and slowly dropped his head onto her shoulder. Grace relinquished his hand and moved her arms up around his neck, her fingers winding themselves into his hair, while Boyd's arms wrapped themselves firmly around her waist.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"If we're going to be together, Boyd, you have to learn to talk to me. We can't keep on fighting or there will be nothing left between us," Grace replied. "Do you understand?"

Boyd nodded and held her tighter. "I don't deserve you."

Grace smiled. "No, you don't, but you're stuck with me for now."

"Only for now?"

"Until Sean Connery comes along."

"Grace!" Boyd protested, still leaning against her shoulder. Grace laughed and squeezed him, not realising their loving embrace was being observed by so many people.

"That is beautiful," Eve said in a quiet voice.

"Looks like it's about bloody time as well," Gerry muttered.

Spencer shook his head. "It's weird."

"Why?" Stella asked him.

"Because. It's Boyd. And Grace. Together."

"They look happy to me," Sandra said.

Spencer turned to her. "Exactly. They never look happy, especially not with each other. That's what's weird."

"I don't know. Young people these days." Jack shook his head.

"Ey up, they're coming out," Brian said quickly. Everyone suddenly looked busy.

"Ten minutes are up," Sandra said mildly. "Shall we go and see if they're ready to cooperate with us?"

Boyd nodded. "Someone needs to go and question Jake Rawley again, see if he ever found his real parents, who could well be the bloody Greenes."

"I haven't had the pleasure yet," Brian volunteered.

"Me neither," Stella said.

"Okay, you two go and do that," Boyd told them.

"What do you want us to do, boss?" Spencer asked.

"Other than find me Tommy Draper or Greene or whatever the bloody hell he's calling himself now?" Boyd replied. "Anything else that would be useful, but don't go too far from the office, Spence. I have a feeling we're going to have to question Karl Morgan and Lee Hopkins again, and I'm going to be very upset if we do have to do that."

"I think you'd better come with us, Grace," Sandra said, and the three of them walked into the waiting room.

Mr Rawley stood up. "We've agreed to tell you everything we know and we swear it's the truth."

"We're listening," Boyd said, leaning against the wall.

"No one here can have children, Superintendent," Mr Rawley began, and it was obvious he was the spokesman for the group. "My wife and I were considering adoption, and one day we ran into Liz Morgan. Literally."

"I was pulling out of a car parking space and didn't see the car behind me," Mrs Morgan said, smiling.

"As we swapped insurance details, we asked about her son, who was in the back of the car," Mr Rawley continued. "We mentioned we wanted to adopt, and Liz said that's how she got Karl."

"Karl is adopted?" Sandra asked in surprise.

Mrs Morgan nodded. "Adam and I knew we couldn't have children when we married, and so we'd been looking at adoption for a long time. One day this man turned up on our doorstep, saying he was from an adoption agency we'd been in contact with. His credentials seemed in order, so we let him into the house. He told us a child had been selected for us to adopt. Two weeks later, Karl was brought to us. All of his paperwork checked out."

"Is the adoption legal, Mrs Morgan?" Grace asked quietly. "Don't worry, we're not interested in separating you and Karl in any way."

"As far as Adam and I knew, it was legal. It wasn't until Karl wanted to track his real parents down that we realised it wasn't."

Sandra looked the woman. "When was that, Mrs Morgan?"

"When he was in his twenties. He never found them," she replied.

"Liz asked us if we wanted the number of the agency that she dealt with," Mr Rawley continued. "We said yes, got in touch with them, and about two months later, Jake was brought to us."

"Didn't you find that a bit sudden, Mr Rawley?" Boyd asked.

"Yes, we did, but like Liz, we had no reason to believe it wasn't legal. We found out like she did, when Jake wanted to trace his parents when he turned eighteen."

"Mrs Hopkins, Mr Hopkins, are you alright?" Grace asked, moving towards them.

"No, we're bloody well not," Mr Hopkins snapped. "You're telling us that our daughter isn't legally ours!"

Sandra's eyes widened. "What? Lee is adopted as well?"

Mrs Hopkins nodded. "I met Martha through work," she said, nodding at Mrs Rawley, "and one day we got to talking about children. This was before she and Jeff adopted Jake, and when that happened, she passed the number for the agency onto me. Frank was against it, but then Lee was brought to us."

Mr Hopkins smiled tightly. "I fell in love with her the moment I saw her. She even looked like us a little."

Grace studied the pair carefully. "She doesn't know she's adopted, does she? That's why you didn't know the adoption wasn't legal."

Mrs Hopkins shook her head. "We tried to tell her so many times, but the words never came out."

"You should tell her," Boyd said in a soft voice, his thoughts drifting back to Mel.

"We will," Mr Hopkins promised.

"We're going to need the name of the man you dealt with, and the agency, and the phone number, if you still have it," Sandra said.

"I hope you have more luck than we did," Mrs Rawley said. "The number is no longer in use, and we've never been able to track the man or the agency."

Grace smiled. "Let's hope we can."

"I'll phone you as soon as I get home with the information," Mr Rawley said.

"Thank you." Boyd opened the doors to the bullpen and yelled for Spencer. "Show these people out, please."

The DI nodded. "This way."

Boyd, Grace and Sandra went back into the bullpen, which seemed quiet as only Jack and Gerry were in there. "How did it go?" Jack asked.

"Lee, Karl and Jake were all adopted through the same agency, which doesn't exist," Sandra replied.

"Lovely," Jack said.

"Bloody marvellous," Gerry agreed. "Now what?"

Boyd laughed. "That's a very good question. I take it Stella and Brian have gone to talk to Jake Rawley?"

Gerry nodded. "Maybe a pretty face will get more out of him."

"I'll tell Brian you called him pretty," Jack said.

"Grass," Boyd replied with a smile.

Grace and Sandra looked at each other and rolled their eyes. "Boys."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Lee? What is it? What's happened?" Karl asked when he saw his friend on the doorstep.

"Can I come in?"

"Of course. Do you want a drink?"

Lee shook her head. "I don't think I'll be staying long."

There was something in her voice that made Karl wary. "What have you done?"

Lee stared at him for a while before replying. "I'm bringing Tommy home."

"What?" Karl exclaimed. "Why the fuck are you doing that?"

"Because he needs to be here, with us, and you know it!" she shouted back.

"All I know is that you've lost your fucking marbles! He's fine where he is, he's safe there!"

"Don't you want him to come home or something?" Lee asked. "Out of all of us, you seem to miss him the most."

"Don't you ever say that again!" Karl screamed at the top of his voice, spittle flying from his lips.

Lee looked shocked. "Jees, Karl, I don't get you at times! What the hell's the matter?"

"I - you know they questioned our parents today, don't you? Mine, yours and Jake's. The truth came out."

"All of it?"

Karl shook his head. "Of course not."

"Surely that makes it clear to you. All this shit that's been hidden for years, all those old dogs that were sleeping are now being woken up. Tommy is safer here."

Karl hung his head in defeat. "Bring him home."

Lee smiled somewhat sheepishly. "His ticket's already booked."

"I hope you know what you're doing."

TBC


	19. Words

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"They're bloody well what?" Brian asked, staring at Sandra.

"Jake, Lee, Karl and Tommy are all adopted," she repeated. Stella and Brian had returned from the prison with only one thing they didn't have when they went - an official complaint from Jake Rawley for police harassment.

"And it's all illegal from the looks of it," Gerry said. "The phone number and the name of agency that Mr Rawley gave us don't check out at all."

Boyd ran a hand through his hair and started pacing. "How relevant is this adoption angle to our case, though?" he asked. "Were any of the children ever reported missing?"

Stella shook her head. "No, none of them."

"Then what's the problem? Let's concentrate on tracking down our killer."

"I think it is important, Boyd," Grace said. "Four children, all adopted, and two likely to be brothers, it creates a bond. Maybe that's why they're protecting each other, and maybe that's why Jake is in prison."

Boyd sat next to her, their arms and thighs touching. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if Jake and Tommy *are* brothers, and Tommy *was* abused, that would give him motive for killing the Greenes, right?"

Boyd nodded, while everyone was listening intently. "Right."

"Let's say that's what happened. Tommy then tells Jake what happened. Now Jake is the more rational of the two, and more likely to survive prison," Grace explained.

"He takes the blame to protect his brother," Sandra said.

"Do we think Lee and Karl knew what was going on?" Jack asked.

"Karl, maybe. Lee, maybe not," Brian replied.

"I think we should investigate the adoptions," Gerry said.

Spencer frowned. "Why?"

"Strickland and the commissioner gave us a closed case, right? They probably didn't expect us to get anywhere with it, giving them the perfect excuse to shut both teams down. But instead, we've almost proved that the wrong man was jailed, and we've uncovered an illegal adoption scheme. I mean, how do we know there weren't more children taken from unstable families and re-homed?"

Spencer was now nodding. "I see what you're getting at - if we can crack both cases, the commissioner and the DAC are going to have to think twice about firing us all."

"Alright, let's do that then," Boyd said.

"How?" Brian asked. "Jake Rawley has launched a complaint against us for harassment, so he won't give us any answers, and Karl Morgan will probably do the same thing. And Lee Hopkins doesn't know she's adopted."

The room fell silent as everyone recognised that all too familiar brick wall that was halting their investigations again. "This is really fucked up, isn't it?" Eve said mildly after a while.

Boyd smiled at her while the others laughed and grinned. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."

Eve nodded. "Just checking."

"Okay," Sandra said, standing up. "We need some sort of miracle right now because we're running out of leads to follow up."

"What about setting up a check at the airports for passengers coming into the country from Canada?" Spencer suggested. "If Tommy Draper is still alive, it's possible they might try to bring him home."

"Good idea, Spence," Boyd said, smiling. He was suddenly doing more of that, and those in the office that weren't unnerved by it were amused by the change.

"Check for Tommy Hopkins and Tommy Morgan, as well as Tommy Draper and Tommy Greene," Brian suggested. "It's possible he could be travelling under any of those names."

Spencer nodded. "I'm on it."

"Hello?" Stella said, answering her phone. "Yes…. Yes…. What? Why didn't this come up before?"

"I'm no expert, but that doesn't sound good," Gerry muttered.

"No, it doesn't," Jack agreed. Silence descended on the bullpen as everyone listened to the one-sided conversation.

"Can you fax the details over?… Why not?… Well can you tell me over the phone?" Stella asked. "No, you listen to me. Police officer or not, I'll have you arrested for obstructing an investigation. Give me the details now!"

"Someone's in trouble," Eve said quietly.

Stella was now scribbling furiously, unaware everyone was watching her. "Yes…. Yes…. Why not?… Really?… As well as…?… I see…. No, you get to keep working. Thank you." She put the phone down and stared at the paper in front of her. "Merde!" She then exploded into a stream of French, none of which sounded pleasant.

"Stella, please," Boyd admonished her. He attempted to look shocked, but only succeeded in looking amused.

The DC looked suitably abashed. "Sorry, sir."

"Bad news?" Grace asked.

"Not exactly. Information that should have been found earlier."

Sandra looked at Stella. "Like what?"

"Karl Morgan has a history of violence."

Brian shook his head. "Not possible. I checked them all out; none of them, except Jake, have got criminal records."

"You're right," Stella said, "Karl doesn't have a criminal record because he was never charged. But he was arrested, on three separate occasions."

Brian looked mutinous. "I think I'm going to kill somebody."

"I'll go and find Strickland for you," Jack offered.

"And in case he's not around, I'll get the commissioner," Gerry added.

"I think you'd better tell us what you've found out," Sandra said to Stella, while Eve looked at the retired officers and muttered, "Down, boys."

Stella stood up and went to the wipe board. "In October1989, Karl Morgan was arrested for a violent attack on a couple. Bruce and Michelle Greene."

"Shit," Boyd exclaimed, shaking his head.

"Why wasn't he charged?" Grace asked.

"The attack wasn't taken seriously because the Greenes were stoned at the time."

"They were on drugs?" Eve asked, surprised.

Stella nodded, while Gerry turned to the scientist and said, "Didn't that show up in the toxicology reports?"

Eve shook her head. "But they weren't as sophisticated as they are now. And it depends how much of a substance had been taken."

"Also, when the Greenes were murdered, Karl Morgan was questioned but he had a rock solid alibi for February sixteenth 1990, so the original investigating team didn't bother following the lead up," Stella said.

Brian snorted. "Bloody wonderful policing."

"There's more."

"Isn't there always?" Jack muttered.

Stella wrote two more dates on the board. "After the murders, Karl was arrested twice in March 1990, again for violence."

"Who against this time?" Sandra asked.

"Lee Hopkins and Jake Rawley."

"This case makes less and less sense the more we find out," Grace said in exasperation, and everyone nodded their agreement.

"Again, neither pressed charges so there was no record of it," Stella continued. "And apparently, Lee was arrested as well because she broke Karl's nose."

"Charming," Eve muttered.

"Wait. March 1990...," Spencer said thoughtfully. "Wasn't that around the time that Tommy disappeared? What if the violence against Lee and Jake were the result of some sort of argument?"

"You mean like Karl wanted Tommy to stay, but the other two wanted him out of the country, where he'd be safer?" Grace nodded. "You might have a point there, Spence."

"Okay, so we can't go and see Jake Rawley…," Sandra started.

"Sorry," Brian muttered, and Stella nodded her agreement.

"It's not your fault," Boyd told them.

"As I was saying, we can't go and see Jake, but we can question Karl and Lee again," Sandra continued, then looked at Boyd. "Shall we take Karl?"

He nodded. "Jack and Spencer can go and talk to Lee."

"What about the rest of us?" Eve asked.

"Get in touch with the airports and tell them to inform us if a Tommy with the surname Draper, Greene, Hopkins or Rawley enters the country," Sandra replied before Boyd could.

"And chase the prison service for Jake's DNA, then we can be certain once of for all if he's directly involved in this case or not," Boyd added.

"Boyd, be careful," Grace told him, and then she looked at Sandra. "Both of you. Karl fits the profile of a killer better than Jake does."

"Do you think he did it, Grace?" Brian asked.

"I think it's more likely," she replied.

"That would make the DNA on the knife his and not Jake's," Spencer said, "which would make Karl Tommy's brother, not Jake."

"That still doesn't explain why Jake confessed," Jack stated, shaking his head.

"Okay, you lot try and figure this puzzle out once and for all while Boyd and I go to talk to Karl," Sandra told them. "Phone if you find anything."

Jack looked at Spencer. "Shall we go and talk to the charming Miss Hopkins again?"

The DI sighed. "If we have to."

"Don't worry, Spence," Grace said, smiling. "Today's almost over."

"Not soon enough," he replied.

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Lee was beaming when Jake was shown into the room. "Great news," she said. "You'll be released within two weeks."

Jake looked shocked. "What? How?"

"You've served most of your sentence, you've got an impeccable record since you've been in here, your psych evaluation says you're sane and balanced, and the police have got more evidence to clear you than convict you again."

Jake let out a long breath. "I don't know what to say."

"Thanks would be good to start with," Lee said, grinning.

"Goes without saying," he replied.

Lee frowned. "Are you okay? You seem distracted."

"Well, you have just dropped a bombshell on me. I mean, I knew it was going to happen, I just didn't realise it would be so soon. I've kind of got used to prison."

"Don't worry, we'll all be there to help you get settled back into life without bars."

Jake looked at her sharply. "We?"

"All of us."

"You didn't."

"I had to." Lee looked around and lowered her voice. "Once you're out, the four of us can leave and   
go wherever we want. Change our names and start our lives afresh. Together."

But Jake was shaking his head. "So that's what Karl was on about."

"What? What about Karl?" Lee asked.

"Karl was here."

*"What?"* she said, her voice coming out like a hiss.

"I know, it was weird." Jake leant forward so he could talk in a whisper. "I was shocked to see him. I mean, it wasn't part of the plan, so I thought something serious had happened. But he just started talking like nothing had happened. Like I wasn't in jail and we were kids again."

"What did he say, Jake?"

"He seemed confused," Jake replied. "Karl said he was looking forward to seeing him again, but he wasn't sure he wanted him home. I wasn't sure who 'he' was, and Karl never said, but he must have been talking about Tommy."

Lee shook her head. "He's been acting strangely recently. One minute he's biting my head off, the next he's like a child."

"Well I don't know if he was acting strangely or not - I haven't seen him for seventeen years, remember?" Jake said, shrugging. "But he did say something which I found odd. Maybe you'll know if it's actually odd or just the way Karl is now."

Lee nodded. "Go on."

"He said it was time things ended and that some old dogs should stay sleeping. He said family was the most important thing, and love was more important than family, and that nothing would ever separate us again. But the way he said it…." Jake shook his head. "He was talking about himself and one other person, I'm sure of it."

Lee shifted in her seat and started to gnaw at a fingernail. "No, that's not normal for Karl. He's always so bloody rational and level-headed."

"He didn't seem that way to me."

"Shit."

Jake looked at his friend. "You don't think he's dangerous, do you?"

"That depends on who crosses him," she replied.

"Lee, it pains me to say this, but I think you need to talk to the police. I've managed to stop them from coming to see me, for now at least, by launching a complaint for harassment, but it won't be long before they find a way around that," he told her. "If they go to see Karl, and he's become as unstable as you say he has, it could end badly. The last thing we need is for him to take my place in here, as such."

Lee was silent for a long time before finally nodding. "How much do I tell them?"

"As much as you need to so no one else dies."

A fragment of a conversation, long since forgotten, suddenly filtered into Lee's mind, and her eyes widened. "Oh fuck!" she swore, jumping to her feet. "I've got to go. Don't say anything to anyone; you will be out of here soon." With that, Lee ran from the room, leaving Jake sat alone and frowning in confusion.

TBC


	20. Families

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"Well that was a bloody waste of time," Jack said as he and Spencer entered the bullpen.

"No joy?" Grace called from her office.

Spencer shook her head. "Lee wasn't at home."

"Yes…. Yes, that's right…. Tommy Hopkins? Due to arrive at Heathrow in two days time?… Okay, I've got that. Thank you very much." Brian put the phone down. "YES!"

"It's about time we had some good news," Gerry said.

"There is a Tommy Hopkins booked on a one way flight from Toronto to Heathrow, due to arrive the day after tomorrow," Brian announced, looking smug.

"Do we think that's our man?" Spencer asked as Stella answered her phone.

"It could well be," Grace replied.

"I guess we'll find out the day after tomorrow," Jack said.

Brian nodded. "I'll phone Sandra."

"You might want to wait," Stella told him.

"Why?"

"Because Lee Hopkins wants to speak to us. She says it's urgent."

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"I need to speak to whoever's in charge," Lee said as soon as she was shown into the bullpen. "Superintendent Pullman or Superintendent Boyd, wasn't it?"

"They're not here at the moment. Can I help?" Spencer asked.

"Where are they?" Lee replied.

"You said you wanted to talk to us," Spencer said, ignoring her question.

But Lee shook her head. "Where are they?" she repeated.

Grace caught the edge in the other woman's voice. "They've gone to see Karl Morgan."

"Shit," Lee swore, and then looked around the room. "How much do you know?"

"We're supposed to ask the questions, Miss Hopkins," Gerry told her.

Lee whirled round to face him. "This isn't a game!" she snapped. "If Pullman and Boyd have gone to see Karl, they could be in danger! I need to know what you know."

Spencer looked at Grace, who nodded slightly. "Karl has a history of violence against you, Jake, and Bruce and Michelle Greene, which makes him a prime suspect for their murder in our books. We also know that Tommy was the Greenes' son, and that it's possible Karl is his brother."

Lee ran her hands through her hair agitatedly. "We need to go, now. Your officers are in very real danger. I don't have time to explain now, and I know you've got not reason to, but you're going to have to trust me."

Spencer hesitated a beat before speaking. "Alright, but if this is some sort of twisted joke…," he said threateningly.

"Believe me, I wish it were," Lee retorted.

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After a couple of brief, intense arguments, everybody left the office. Eve insisted on coming in case Karl's house turned into the scene of a crime, Grace said she could help in case it turned into a hostage situation, and none of the retired officers wanted to stay behind when Sandra could be in danger.

When they arrived at Karl's house, Lee spoke up again. "Let me go in first."

"No way," Spencer told us.

"Look, I can talk him out of practically anything. If you go in, things could turn ugly very quickly," she said. "I know what Karl is like."

"I'm sorry, Miss Hopkins, but we can't let you go in," Stella replied.

Lee chewed her bottom lip and paced a couple of times before stopping and looking at the two armed officers. "You have to."

"No, we don't," Spencer said firmly.

"I need to go in."

"It's not going to happen."

Lee chewed her lip again briefly before lowering her head. "He's my brother."

Everyone stared at the woman, while Grace let out a quiet, "Oh my God."

"Wait, Karl Morgan is your *brother*?" Gerry said incredulously.

Lee nodded. "Look, I don't have time to explain it all now…."

"You've said that once already, Miss Hopkins, but an explanation or two wouldn't go amiss right about now," Brian said.

"You'll have the explanations you can handle afterwards," she replied tiredly. "But right now, you have two officers in there who could well be in mortal danger. Give me ten minutes to talk to my brother. If no one comes out in that time, then you can come in. I'll sign anything you want me to afterwards to absolve you of any blame if things go wrong in there. Please, let me go in."

Spencer looked at Jack, recognising the retired officer as his superior, or at least an equal, for now. "What do you think?"

"Let her go in," Jack said.

"Alright, Miss Hopkins. Ten minutes, starting now."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Mr Morgan, we know you have a record for violence against Bruce and Michelle Greene four months before they were murdered, but they never pressed charges. We want to know why," Sandra said.

"Were you protecting Tommy, Mr Morgan?" Boyd asked. "Because he was their son, wasn't he? But you knew that."

"Why are you doing this?" Karl replied. "I had nothing to do with the murders."

"You know something, *Dr.* Morgan, I don't believe you," Boyd said flatly. "I want the truth, and I want it now!"

"I don't know!" Karl yelled.

"You're lying!" Boyd shouted back.

"Boyd," Sandra said, her tone of voice a warning on its own.

Karl started pacing and shaking his head. "Why did you have to reopen the case? Why couldn't you just leave it well alone?"

"It's our job to find the truth, Mr Morgan," Boyd replied. "The truth, yeah? You know what that is, don't you?"

"I want you to leave."

"If we go now, the next time we come back will be with a warrant for your arrest, and perhaps a warrant to search your house," Sandra told him.

"On what grounds?" Karl snapped.

"Obstructing a police investigation, and having motive for murder," Boyd said. "And anything else we can think of."

Karl stopped by his desk and put both hands on the surface. "Why can't you just leave us alone?" he asked, his voice dropping to almost a whisper. One hand dropped to the side, hovering near the handle of the top drawer.

"Karl, don't."

The three heads in the room turned to see Lee standing in the doorway. "What are you doing here?" he asked, frowning.

"I'm here to talk to you. Karl, no matter what they've said, they don't know anything."

"Now just wait a minute…," Sandra started.

"Shut up," Lee replied firmly, staring at the police officers. "You - do - not - know - anything." Each word was spoken slowly and clearly, and afterwards, she mouthed, *'Please,'* hoping they would understand her silent message.

Karl looked at his friend. "But they said -"

Lee shook her head. "They know some things, yes, but not everything. We can still win this, Karl, but you have to let them go."

"We're not going anywhere," Boyd said heatedly.

"Shut up!" Lee replied. "Karl, listen to me. Let them walk out of here and then you and I can sort things out, okay?"

Karl lowered his head and nodded eventually. "Okay."

"Thank you." Lee turned to the police officers. "Go. *Now*. Don't look back until you're outside."  
Boyd nodded to Sandra and ushered her out first. "Go, I'm right behind you," he muttered.

Lee turned back to Karl, all of her attention on him, and she only started to relax when she heard the door click shut. "Karl, you have to talk to me. If you don't, I can't help you."

He gave a harsh laugh. "You can't help me anyway."

"How do you know?"  
Karl lifted his head slowly. "Because I…." He stopped suddenly. "What the fuck are you still doing here?"

Lee whirled to see Boyd stood silently with his back against the door. "I thought I told you to leave!"

Boyd shook his head. "I'm a police officer, Miss Hopkins. I have a duty of care towards you and Mr Morgan. I can't leave without knowing you'll both be safe."

"We'll be fine," Lee told him, a note of urgency creeping into her voice. "Go!"

"It's too fucking late for that now," Karl said in a flat voice, and both Lee and Boyd turned to see the doctor pointing a gun at them. "Nobody's going anywhere."

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"Sandra!" Gerry exclaimed, hurrying forward with Brian and Jack. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, but she was shivering. "Left my coat in there." She pointed to the house.

Jack took his overcoat off and wrapped it around her. "Better?"

She smiled. "Thanks."

"Where's Boyd?" Spencer asked.

Sandra looked at the DI and then back towards the house. "He was right behind me!"

"Let's go," Spencer said to Stella.

"Maybe we should give Lee a chance to talk to her brother," Eve suggested.

"Brother?" Sandra repeated.

"We'll explain later," Brian said.

"Grace, is Boyd in danger if he stays…?"

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Karl, put the gun down!" Lee told him.

"No!"

"Karl!"

"No, Lee!"

"Shit, I didn't think you were serious when you said you were going to buy one!"

"Do you have a license for that?" Boyd asked, and Lee almost laughed at the absurdity of his question in their current situation.

Karl did laugh, but it was maniacal sound. "Of course I have! I'll even show you the paperwork…if you live that long." The last part of the sentence was delivered with a chilling finality.

Boyd looked unimpressed. "I've been threatened before, Mr Morgan, and I'm still here."

"Shut up," Lee told the policeman. "Karl, don't do this. Let him go."

"What? Let him walk out of here so he can then arrest us? I don't think so."

"What's he going to arrest us for, Karl?" Lee asked. "All you've done up to now is shout a little."

"And point a gun at me," Boyd added.

Lee glared at him. "Shut - up." She looked at Karl. "No one can prove that. It'd be his word against ours. Up to now, we're both still safe."

"But you won't stay that way if you don't put that gun down *now*!" Boyd yelled suddenly.

"If you value your life, if you've got anyone out there," Lee shouted at Boyd, pointing outside of the house, "who you love and want to see again, you'll shut the fuck up!"

Boyd almost retorted when a fleeting image of blue eyes and blonde hair passed through his mind's eye. *Grace.* He loved Grace. He wanted to see her again. He *loved* her. That revelation surprised him into silence, something Lee was grateful for. She knew that if Boyd had carried on talking, she wouldn't have been able to save him. Now, though, there was a chance.

"Karl, please, talk to me," she urged him.

"What about him?" Karl asked, pointing at Boyd. "Whatever he hears in here, he can use against us."

Lee looked at the policeman. "Are you wired?" He shook his head. "There," Lee said to Karl. "Again, it would be his word against ours. He's got no proof. Karl, *talk* to me, brother to sister."

*'Brother and sister?'* Boyd thought, his eyes widening slightly.

Karl started to shake a little. "I can't stand it any longer, Lee. I need Tommy."

Lee nodded. "I know. I understand how painful it is being separated from your twin."

*'What the fuck?'* Boyd shook his head, not quite believing what he was hearing.

But Karl laughed. "It's got nothing to do with that!" He laughed again. "Actually, it's got *everything* to do with that! Things could be so different if he wasn't my fucking twin!"

Lee frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I love him!"

"I love him too…."

"No, I'm *in* love with him!"

Lee stared at him. "What?"

"That's right, I'm in love with Tommy! I was before I found out he was my brother, and I couldn't change my feelings afterwards," Karl admitted. "I can't do this any longer. I can't be with him, yet I can't live without him. It's eating me from the inside out, Lee. You have no idea what it's like."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Lee asked him in a distraught tone of voice. "We're a family; we're supposed to talk to each other."

"Family?" Boyd muttered.

"SHUT UP!" Karl screamed, pointing the gun steadily at Boyd, all traces of shaking gone. "Lee, you just said we're a family."

A feeling of dread settled in the pit of Lee's stomach. "Yes, Karl, we are," she answered cautiously, taking a step towards the middle of the room, between him and Boyd.

"That means you'll support me, right? No matter what?"

Something in his tone of voice made Lee's blood run cold. She knew, without a doubt, that Karl was beyond reasoning with. Nothing good was going to happen now.

She took another step forward. "Yes, Karl, I'll support you." Another step forward. "We'll stick together, I promise." Another step. "That's what families do."

Karl suddenly smiled as tears blurred his vision. "Yeah, that's what families do," he repeated. He looked at Boyd. "I'm sorry."

 

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD  
"…Boyd in danger if he stays in there?" Stella asked.

Jack noticed the profiler's pale face and he put an arm around her shoulders, leaving Gerry and Brian to take care of Sandra. "Grace?"

She nodded slowly. "I think Boyd with be a catalyst to the situation. Lee could have probably talked Karl down if it was just the two of them, but with a third person there…." Grace trailed off. "I think it's asking for trouble."

"Where are they?" Spencer asked Sandra.

"Living room combined with study. Straight through the front door, second room on the left," she replied.

"You ready?" Spencer asked Stella, who nodded. "Let's go."

They were halfway down the path when the sound of gunshots made them stop.

*Bang.*

*Bang.*

*Bang.*

TBC


	21. Explanations

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

The atmosphere in the office the next morning was subdued. No 'good mornings' were spoken; coffee was handed out silently as everyone took their seats in the bullpen. Grace and Boyd's offices remained empty; no one wanted to be alone.

Everyone's thoughts were the same - they were recalling the events of the previous afternoon.

*Three shots were heard and everyone froze. Then in unison, Spencer and Stella broke into a run, the others close behind them despite the potential danger. Spencer kicked the door open forcefully, perhaps a little too hard as it splintered badly. Three bodies were strewn on the floor, and there was blood everywhere.

Boyd was down, Lee Hopkins spread-eagled on top of him on her back. Neither one was moving. Stella and Spencer assumed the third body was Karl Morgan, who had apparently committed suicide; half of his face was missing, having put the gun in his mouth for some reason.

As soon as Stella shouted clear, Eve rushed into the room, yelling at the others to stay outside. It was now a crime scene and needed to be processed as quickly as possible. Gerry had already phoned for an ambulance, and they could only watch as Spencer and Stella carefully picked Lee up. Her entire right side was covered in blood, her clothes saturated, but she was still breathing. Brian and Gerry took Lee from their fellow officers and carried her outside. The ambulance arrived a few moments later and the paramedics quickly assured them that the injured woman would live.

Boyd, however, was a different matter….*

"I suppose we'd better start the paperwork," Spencer said eventually, breaking the silence.

Sandra sighed and nodded. "Yeah, we had."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Lee Hopkins sat on the edge of the hospital bed absently rubbing her hand lightly over her bandaged arm. It hurt like hell, but it was nothing compared to the pain her heart and soul were enduring.

The curtains were parted and Lee looked up the man who entered. "I take it you've come to arrest me."

Boyd looked surprised and shook his head. "I came to ask how you were."

She shrugged with her left shoulder. "I'll live. The bullet went straight through my upper arm without doing too much damage. I'm being discharged at any time. How about you?"

Boyd smiled. "I'll live as well, thanks to you."

"Are you sure about that? Your colleague who came with us in the ambulance to the hospital looked like she wanted to kill you."

"You're probably right," Boyd agreed, remembering how Grace had rushed to him once Spencer and Stella realised the blood Boyd was covered in wasn't his. "We do need to talk to you, though, Miss Hopkins."

Lee shook her head. "Please, call me Lee. I always feel like an old spinster when people call me 'Miss'. 'Ms' is even worse." She shuddered. "I know. You want the whole truth this time."

Boyd nodded. "We do know quite a bit, but we're having trouble fitting all the pieces together."

Lee sighed and rubbed her eyes tiredly. "I can come into your office as soon as I leave here, if you like."

"Thank you," Boyd said, leaving her some money for a taxi.

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Grace went straight to Boyd's side when he walked in and took his hand. She needed to reassure herself that he really was okay. It seemed Boyd also needed comfort as he bent his head onto her shoulder and embraced her tightly.

"Are you okay?" Sandra asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Some bruises here and there but nothing serious," Boyd replied, relinquishing his hold on Grace except for her hand.

"You gave us a scare, boss," Spencer said.

"I know. I'm sorry."

"So what happened?" Jack asked.

Boyd quickly recounted the story from Sandra leaving to Lee promising she'd support Karl no matter what. "Karl then told me he was sorry and pulled the trigger. I saw Lee dive in front of me, Karl fired again, and the next thing I know, I'm pinned to the floor," Boyd explained. "I knew Lee had been shot, but that was it." He gazed into space. "I've never seen anyone look as devastated as Karl did at that moment." Grace squeezed his hand. "He obviously thought he'd killed his sister, and all I could do was watch as he put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger again."

"I pulled the second bullet that was fired out of the wall," Eve said. "It missed you and Lee, luckily."

"How is Miss Hopkins?" Brian asked. "Aside from the physical damage, I mean."

Boyd shrugged. "I don't know, but she'll be in soon to talk to us. Sandra, I'd like you to do the interview with me."

"Okay. Who do you want to observe?" Sandra asked.

"Whoever wants to."

Gerry looked at Eve. "Didn't you have something to tell us?"

"What? Oh, right." The scientist hurried into the lab and came back a few minutes later with a sheet of paper. "Jake Rawley's DNA came this morning while you were out, Boyd, so I ran some tests on it."

"And?"

"It doesn't match the blood on the knife. But," Eve replied, "the DNA is similar."

"Which means?" Boyd asked.

"That Jake Rawley is related to the Greenes and to the person who that third sample of blood belongs to."

"Karl Morgan's?" Gerry asked, but Eve shook her head.

"I checked against some blood I took from the scene yesterday. It isn't his. But…."

"How did I know that was coming?" Brian muttered.

"…Karl Morgan shares the same DNA as Jake Rawley *and* the Greenes *and* the other person who's blood is on that knife," Eve finished.

"Lee said that she and Karl were brother and sister, didn't she?" Jack asked, and Boyd nodded. "Which would make them all siblings, and all offspring of the Greenes."

"Wow," Spencer said. "I didn't see that one coming."

"I don't think any of us did, Spence," Sandra agreed.

"Yes…. Okay, thank you." Stella looked up after putting the phone down. "Lee Hopkins is here."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Thank you for coming in so soon, Lee," Boyd greeted her.

"The sooner this is all over, the better. I'm tired of living a lie," she replied.

"Good. We might actually get the truth this time," Brian muttered from the observation room. He and Jack were stood there watching as Gerry came in with mugs of coffee for them.

"Did I miss anything?" he asked.

Jack shook his head. "They've just started."

"So, Lee, why don't you tell us how all this came about?" Sandra said.

Lee sighed. "Most of what we told you was true. Jake, Karl, Tommy and I lived in the same area, but only became friends at school. Jake and I were in the same year and we clicked instantly. One day we saw some of the other kids bullying someone, so we stepped in, as did Karl. It was Tommy who was being bullied, and the four of us became friends from there." Lee sipped her water. "Tommy told us he was adopted early on in our friendship, but no one else knew. His parents, the Drapers, had told him to keep it quiet as it would cause problems, but Tommy trusted us."

"How did Tommy find out who his real parents were?" Sandra asked.

"How's it going?" Grace asked quietly, slipping into the observation room.

"Just started," Brian told her.

"He overheard John and Lynne talking one day about Bruce and Michelle Greene, and about how they must be his real parents," Lee replied. "He was shocked, to say the least, and he told us straight away."

"How old was he?" Boyd asked.

"About sixteen, I think. It was around the time we left school."

"The same time he left home," Sandra said.

Lee nodded. "I think that was why he left, but he never spoke to John and Lynne about it."

Boyd leant forward. "Did Tommy ever get in touch with Bruce and Michelle Greene?"

Spencer slipped into the observation room. "Anything interesting yet?"

"I think we're just getting there," Jack replied.

"Yes," Lee said. "We were about seventeen. Tommy found out where they lived and finally plucked up the courage to go and see them. Karl, Jake and I went with him for support, but we stayed around the corner out of the way.

"Bruce opened the door. Tommy got about three words about before Bruce slammed the door in his face. Tommy was devastated. We took him to our favourite café in an attempt to cheer him up." Lee sighed. "What you have to understand about Tommy is he isn't like the rest of us. He sees things simply, everything in black and white. In a way, he's too pure for this world, but he was made that way."

"What do you mean?" Sandra asked.

"I'll explain later," Lee replied. "While we were in the café, this man came in and went to speak to Tommy, then stopped when he saw the four of us. The colour drained from his face and, well, he had a heart attack."

Stella couldn't stifle a giggle in the observation room, earning her glares from the rest. Eve suddenly burst in. "This is where everyone is!" she exclaimed.

"News?" Grace asked, looking over her shoulder.

"No. I just wondered where everyone was," Eve replied, shrugging.

"Watching," Brian told her. "Things look like they're about to get interesting."

"Excuse me a moment." Sandra smiled and left the room. She opened the door to the observation part, stuck her head through the gap and said, "Do you mind?"

"I take it 'no' isn't an option," Gerry muttered after Sandra had left, and everyone saw the corner of Boyd's lip curl slightly.

"I'm sorry about that," Sandra said, re-entering the interview room. "Where were we?"

"I was telling you about my uncle," Lee replied, smiling slightly.

Boyd's hand stopped halfway to his mouth, the cup hovering there. "Your what?"

Lee's smile turned sheepish. "Sorry. That was a bit premature of me to say. The man in the café had a heart attack, and we went to the hospital to see him. We wanted to know why he wanted to speak to Tommy, so in order to get to see him, the four us said we were his relatives." Lee shook her head. "We didn't know how true that was. When we were allowed to see him, he told us to go to his house and pick up a box."

"Just like that?" Boyd said.

She nodded. "Just like that. Tommy asked what was in the box, and he replied, 'the truth'. He said his name was Charles and that he was our uncle. Of course, we thought he was confused, because of the heart attack, and we assumed he meant he was Tommy's uncle. Tommy asked what his last name was, and Charles said, 'Greene.' But he wouldn't tell us anything else until we retrieved the box. So Jake and I went to do that while Tommy and Karl stayed with Charles.

"When we got back to the hospital, with this box, Charles told us to open it. Karl did the honours, so to speak, and inside were four pieces of paper. Four birth certificates. Karl read out the names; Karl and Tommy Greene, born the same day, same time. Jake and Lee Greene, born the same day, same time." Lee smiled somewhat ruefully. "It didn't take a genius to work out what it meant."

There was a brief silence in both the interview and observation rooms. "How did the four of you take it?" Sandra asked. "I mean the fact that you were sister and brothers, and that Tommy and Karl were twins, as were you and Jake."

"Surprisingly, we took it well," Lee replied. "Once the initial shock had subsided, we knew that must be the reason we all got on so well. We talked with Charles a lot, and he told us why he separated us from our birth parents."

"Whatever you do, don't change tact now," Grace said quietly, her voice sounding in both Boyd and Sandra's earpieces. "Lee will tell you the truth no matter what, providing you keep this temperature of the conversation, so the speak."

Boyd leant back in his chair and crossed his legs, causing Grace cause to smile and shake her head. "What?" Jack asked.

Grace covered the microphone. "That's his way of saying he heard me. It's also his 'tell' on occasion."

"Really?" Stella asked, her eyes lighting up.

"Yes, but you didn't hear that from me." Grace removed her hand from the microphone.

"Jake, Karl and I were removed from them at an early age. I don't actually remember ever living with the Greenes," Lee continued. "But I knew as I grew up that the people I called my parents weren't. It's hard to describe; when you're adopted, you just know." She rubbed her injured arm absently. "Charles told us that Bruce and Michelle used to abuse us. Nothing sexual, but they'd starve us, lock us in cupboards, the usual shit. There was also the emotional abuse. They'd lavish praise on us, and encourage us to do things, then in the next breath, they'd be yelling and shouting and telling us off for doing what they'd asked. They weren't good parents at all, and Charles knew of some couples in the neighbourhood who were looking to adopt. Karl was the first to go, when he was four, then Jake and I were re-homed not long after that. Charles said that Bruce and Michelle never even noticed we were gone."

"That must have been hard to hear," Sandra said quietly.

Lee nodded. "It was. But it was a long time ago. The problem was, Tommy was our parents' favourite. They used to take him with them wherever they went, and so he was harder to separate from them. Charles said he tried, but it didn't work. Then one day, about a year after we'd all been separated, Tommy just disappeared. Charles knew he was at the Drapers, but never told his brother, Bruce, and neither Bruce nor Michelle ever tried to find him either. Unfortunately, Tommy had to endure a year more of abuse before he escaped." Lee rubbed her eyes. "They'd give him alcohol instead of juice or water, and feed him minute amounts of drugs, Charles told us. Nothing too obvious, but over time, it has seriously damaged him. That's what I meant before when I said Tommy was made the way he is."

"Why didn't Charles report his brother and sister-in-law?" Boyd asked.

"There wasn't any evidence, and he said he did once. But when the social services came around, they saw nothing out of the ordinary and left again. And the neighbours weren't any help; no one saw or heard anything."

Sandra frowned. "I don't understand how no one reported you and your brothers missing."

"We were never allowed out," Lee replied. "Bruce and Michelle only ever took Tommy out, occasionally Karl, but because they're twins, at an early age, they looked like each other."

"How did your uncle find you?" Boyd asked.

"He was at the house when Tommy called. He followed us from there."

"Lee, what happened in October 1989?" Sandra asked.

Lee whistled. "That's a long time ago. Can you be a little more specific?"

Boyd folded his arms. "Karl and the Greenes."

"Ah. That." Lee nodded. "What my uncle told us was over the course and months, even years. We could only take so much at a time." She sighed. "He saved the abuse Tommy suffered until last. Karl went nuts. We spent ages trying to get him to calm down, and it worked, until that October. He just showed up at their house, battered on the door until they opened it, and then set about Bruce."

"How old were you?" Sandra asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"Jake and I were twenty, Karl and Tommy were twenty one," Lee replied.

"Go on," Boyd said.

"Anyway, Charles managed to pull Karl off and threw him out of the house, telling him he was never there and that he, Charles, would sort things."

"Did your uncle live at the Greenes' house?" Sandra asked. Lee nodded. "For the benefit of the tape, Miss Hopkins is nodding. Please, carry on."

"Anyway, the police were called because a neighbour reported the incident, but by the time they got to the house, Charles had convinced his brother that nothing happened." She snorted. "It helped that they were both stoned. From what I gather, it was a regular occurrence." Lee took a sip of water. "January 1990 and we read in the newspaper that Charles Greene had died. Second heart attack. We were all upset, but Tommy seemed to take it the hardest."

"I thought he'd be glad, in a way," Sandra said calmly. "I mean, Charles rescued you, Jake and Karl, but not Tommy."

Lee glared at the policewoman. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Be careful, Sandra," Jack murmured.

Boyd spread his hands. "Then tell us."

"Tommy knew Charles had done everything he could for us. It wasn't his fault he couldn't save Tommy. Besides, he was the only one who ever told us the truth, except for our adopted parents, and even then, mine couldn't tell me I wasn't theirs. Sorry," she apologised.

Boyd smiled. "That's okay. Carry on."

"Good, Boyd," Grace said, and he could hear the smile in her voice.

Lee sighed, and everyone knew they were coming to the tough part of the story. "Tommy had grown more and more reticent. None of us, not even Karl, could draw him out of it. Then one day, Karl got a phone call. He in turn phoned Jake, who phoned me. The three of us turned up at the Greenes house to a scene of destruction."

"February sixteenth, 1990," Sandra stated.

"Yes. We found out later that Tommy had gone round to the house, to talk to Bruce and Michelle, but things had turned. Tommy had a knife on him - and no, I don't know where he got it from - and he stabbed Michelle in the kitchen. Bruce tried to run upstairs - again, I don't know why. I think they were both high. Again. Anyway, Tommy caught Bruce and stabbed him. Then he phoned Karl, for help." Lee sighed and hung her head. "The three of us cleaned the house best we could of anything that could be linked to Tommy. Jake took the knife, while Karl and I took Tommy away. Later, on when Tommy explained why he killed them, we all agreed to protect him. After all, he's our brother."

"Why exactly did Tommy kill the Greenes?" Boyd asked.

"He thought they were the reason Charles died. And because of what they did to him," Lee replied. "But mainly, it was because they kept him and allowed us to leave."

"How did you decide who took the blame?" Sandra asked.

Lee laughed. "We were going to draw straws, but Jake offered. He knew that Karl and I had better chances of getting good jobs, highly paid jobs, so we could fund lawyers to try and get him out of jail as soon as possible. Jake agreed that he would always maintain his guilt, while I would protest his innocence. Because we're twins, it was agreed that I would be the one to visit him, and Karl and Tommy would stay away."

Sandra sat back. "Why did you suddenly decide that Tommy should leave the country?"

"After Jake confessed, we knew that if the police tried hard enough, they'd break our story with ease. The three of us all had part time jobs, so we paid for a one way ticket out of the country," Lee replied. "But Karl wasn't happy about it. He said that Tommy wouldn't be able to cope on his own, something I was also concerned about, and I thought Karl didn't want to be separated from his twin, something I understood completely." Lee shook her head. "I realise now that Karl wanted to go with him in the hopes the two of them could start a life together, as a couple. I still can't believe that."

"Is that why Karl attacked you and Jake?" Boyd asked. "Because you told him Tommy had to go alone?"

Lee nodded. "Yes. He hated the idea, but eventually we convinced him it was the right thing to do."

Sandra smiled. "Was that before or after you broke his nose?"

"After," Lee replied with a smile. "The police only got involved because there were witnesses, but we all refused to press charges against each other. It wouldn't have done any good at all. We made sure that Tommy knew what to do, which was basically find a job and stay low, and surprisingly, he's managed it for seventeen years. Karl and I both keep in touch with him through letters and the odd phone call, but nothing too frequent. The last thing we needed was for him to start missing us too much, or vice versa."

"But you're bringing him home now," Boyd stated.

Lee looked at him sharply. "How did you know?"

"We're police officers. Finding things out is what we do."

"Tread carefully, Boyd," Grace warned him.

Lee appeared to be struggling with herself, as though she was torn between yelling and storming out, or finishing telling the truth. Eventually, her shoulders slumped in defeat. "I knew it was only a matter of time before you found him in Canada, and I thought the best thing would be to bring him home now. Then when Jake was released, the four of us could start afresh somewhere else. Be a family." She sighed. "That's not going to happen now, is it?"

"What do you mean?" Sandra asked.

Lee stared at her as though she was pink with yellow and green polka dots. "You're joking, right?" She shook her head. "Tommy's a murderer and Jake and I perverted the course of justice, as well as aiding and abetting a criminal. After seventeen years, it was all for nothing."

Boyd leant forward. "Interview suspended at two twelve pm. If you would excuse us for a few moments, Miss Hopkins." He stood, turned to his colleague, and gestured to the door. "Sandra."

"What is he up to?" Jack muttered, frowning. "We've got everything we need. Why doesn't he just charge her?"

"I think we're about to find out," Eve replied.

Sandra inclined her head and left the room, Boyd close behind her. As they entered the observation room, Boyd pointed to the microphone and drew his finger across his throat. Stella reached over and switched it off.

"What are you doing, Boyd?" Grace asked.

"It's a little crowded in here, isn't it?" he replied.

"We prefer 'cosy'," Gerry said.

Sandra rolled her eyes. "Shouldn't you lot be working?"

"Doing what?" Spencer asked.

Sandra just held her hands up. "Okay, never mind. We could be at this all day." She turned to Boyd. "Are you going to explain why we left or should I just guess?"

Boyd leant against the wall next to Grace, crossed his arms and replied, "Guess," with a smile.

"Okay. You're thinking that anyone would have done what they did in their position. You're also thinking that because of the similarity in the DNA, we can say that Karl committed the murders, not Tommy. If Lee changes her story slightly, everything would tie in with that, including Karl's suicide. Jake would be released from prison, something we could arrange to happen, I don't know, tomorrow? And they could be a family." Sandra looked at Boyd. "How was that?"

Spencer shook his head. "Way out."

Boyd smiled. "Spot on."

"What?" Stella and Eve exclaimed together.

"Well, I for one agree with that," Gerry said. "It makes sense. Pin the murder on someone who's already dead. If Lee will agree to that."

"I think she will," Grace replied, nodding. "As much as she's saddened by Karl's death, she'll want what's best for her family."

"Okay, I'm going to put this to a vote, but don't get used to this level of diplomacy," Boyd told everybody. "Those who agree we should pin the murders on Karl and let the others go without arresting them, put your hands up." Boyd put his hand up at the same time Grace did. Sandra's went up with Jack's. Brian shrugged and raised his, followed by Eve and Gerry. Spencer and Stella looked at each other hesitantly.

"Sometimes doing nothing is the right thing," Sandra said quietly, recognising the worry on their faces. "This will never get out, so it won't damage your careers. Trust me, we're experts in covering the truth up when we need to."

"You can say that again," Jack muttered.

Stella just shrugged. "I think it's the best thing to do." She put her hand up.

"Okay, but if we do get found out, yours is the first head I'll be after," Spencer said, smiling at Sandra and raising his hand.

Sandra just looked at him and half-shrugged. "I'll bear that in mind." She glanced around the room. "So we're all agreed?"

Gerry nodded. "If Lee will go for it, we're all behind you."

Sandra and Boyd both smiled. "Thanks," Boyd said, then turned to Sandra. "Shall we?"

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Boyd waited until Sandra had sat down before sitting himself. Without speaking, he took the tape out of the machine and laid it on the table between himself and Lee. "Miss Hopkins, my colleagues and I have decided that we're not going to press charges against you, or your brothers."

"What?" Lee exclaimed incredulously. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"Do I look the type to joke, Miss Hopkins?" Boyd asked, his expression grave.

"I suppose not," Lee replied. "So what's the catch?"

Sandra leant forward. "There's more than enough evidence to convince our bosses that Karl murdered the Greenes."

Lee was silent for a time, her gaze flickering from Sandra to Boyd, to the glass behind them, and then back to the police officers. Finally she stared at the table. "Let me see if I'm reading between the lines correctly," she said quietly. "You're going to twist the facts so that it seems Karl is the murderer, and because he's dead, he can't object." She looked up. "What about that tape?"

Boyd picked it up between his index finger and thumb. "This tape will be destroyed, if you agree to this."

"And we would need you to retell your story with some…omissions," Sandra added.

Lee let out an explosive breath and ran her hand through her hair. "You want me to lie?"

"No, just be…creative with the truth," Sandra said with a slight smile. "To protect yourself and your brothers."

"While shopping the dead one," Lee replied somewhat bitterly.

"Not necessarily," Boyd said. "No one would know you're all related unless you tell them. We certainly won't."

"If I do this…*if*," Lee started slowly, "you wouldn't charge Tommy or me with anything, and Jake would still be released from prison?"

"Tomorrow, if we can arrange it, so you and Tommy can meet him when he comes out," Sandra replied.

Eventually, Lee nodded. "All right, where do you want me to start and what do you want to know?"

Boyd turned to look at the glass. "Can someone talk to the prison about having Jake Rawley released tomorrow?"

"I'm on it, boss," Spencer replied.

Boyd put a new tape into the machine. "We'd like you to tell us exactly what you told us before, but we want to hear that Karl was the murderer, not Tommy. You can use the same reasoning, if you like."

"What about why Tommy left the country?" Lee asked.

Sandra shrugged. "Maybe he couldn't stand to be near his twin, knowing what he did. Maybe, because he was as sensitive as he was, he wouldn't have been able to keep quiet. You had to send him away to protect Karl."

Lee nodded. "Okay. And the reason Karl attacked Jake and I?"

"He didn't want Tommy to leave and he didn't want protecting," Boyd replied quietly. "But you're family. That's what you do."

"You're right. It is. Okay, Superintendent, let's get this over with."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Interview terminated at…three thirty six pm," Boyd stated, turning the tape off. Lee had recounted her story, with some key changes, and if both teams did their jobs right, nobody would ever know that Tommy was the real murderer.

"Thank you for coming in, Miss Hopkins," Sandra said. "We hope you recover soon."

Lee stood and shook hands with both officers. "No, thank you. For everything. God knows we don't deserve the break you just gave us. Thank you."

"We don't want to see you or your brothers again after tomorrow, Miss Hopkins," Boyd told her. "Do you understand?"

Lee nodded. "I do."

"Good." Boyd opened the door for her. "Stella will show you out."

"Tomorrow?" Lee asked, needing confirmation.

Sandra nodded. "It's all arranged. We'll pick you and your brother up and take you to the prison so you're there in time for Jake's release."

"Thank you." Lee smiled briefly before Stella led her away.

TBC


	22. Endings

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Are you okay?" Sandra asked Lee.

Lee shook her head and the man at her side wrapped his arm tighter around her shoulders. "Not really. It's a lot to take in."

Tommy kissed the top of her head. "We'll get there, sis."

Lee stared at him. "Since when did you become so grown up?"

"Since I had to go away," he answered gravely. He was taller than Lee, with darker hair, but as Boyd and Sandra looked at them side by side, they could now see a family resemblance. Subtle, but it was there.

"Jake should be out soon," Boyd told them. "We arranged for him to be released at midday."

"Thank you," Lee said.

Tommy shook his head. "I still can't believe you would do this for us."

"Yeah, well you were lucky you got us on a good day," Sandra replied. "You don't want to know what would have happened on a bad day."

"We can guess," Lee said, smiling wryly.

"Where will you go now?" Boyd asked.

"We don't need to know the answer to that," Sandra said quickly. "In fact, it's best we *don't* know where you're going."

"I was just being polite," Boyd replied defensively. He was answered with a glare from Sandra that would have done Grace proud.

A noise drew everyone's attention to the prison gates that were being opened. "We'll let you meet Jake on your own," Sandra said, smiling and stepping forward to shake hands with Lee and Tommy.

"And I meant what I said - I don't want to see you three," Boyd added, pointing to Tommy, Lee and Jake, who was still hidden by the gates, "ever again. Understood?"

"We understand, Superintendent," Lee replied, nodding firmly.

Boyd shook hands with her and Tommy. "Good luck."

"Thank you, Superintendent," Tommy said. "And Superintendent." He looked at Sandra and smiled. "Thank your teams for us as well."

"We will do." Sandra smiled and walked away, Boyd at her side. They were silent until they reached the cars where both teams were waiting. Boyd went straight to Grace and took her hand, while Sandra stood between Jack and Brian. Eve was leaning shoulder to shoulder with Gerry, and Spencer and Stella were stood next to each other.

"Do you think they'll be alright?" Brian asked, nodding towards the prison gates. Jake had just come out and was involved in an obviously emotional reunion with his brother and his twin sister.

Grace nodded. "They'll be fine."

"How do you know?" Stella asked.

"They're family and the ties between them are strong," Grace replied. "They didn't expect to get a second chance, not after Karl died, so they're not going to waste this opportunity. They'll do whatever needs to be done."

Gerry snorted. "Yeah, as long as they don't murder anyone else, things'll be fine," he muttered sarcastically.

Everyone glared at Gerry while Jake, Lee and Tommy disappeared into the distance. Just as Spencer was about to reply, Boyd's phone rang. "Hello? Yes, sir," he answered, disengaging himself from Grace and walking away from both teams.

"So, what now?" Brian asked.

"I guess we go our separate ways," Spencer replied.

"Which way we go depends on whether we all keep working or not," Eve added dryly.

"That's what I like to hear, positivity," Sandra said dryly.

Gerry stared at her. "Is that even a word?"

"I'm guessing that's the commissioner on the phone," Jack said quickly, nodding towards Boyd. "I wonder he's saying."

"Who, Boyd or the commissioner?" Grace asked.

"Both."

"I don't know."

Eve looked at Grace. "You're the expert on Boyd."

"Shouldn't you know?" Stella added.

"Now now, ladies, leave the good doctor alone," Gerry told them.

"Well Boyd isn't yelling, so that's something," Spencer said, looking at his boss.

"No, but he does look serious," Jack replied.

Brian looked around at everyone. "Someone's got to say it and it might as well be me; Boyd's being told which team will be closed down."

"Did you lot eat a huge dose of negativity for breakfast?" Sandra asked, shaking his head.

"He's right, though," Spencer told her.

"Well, I'd just like to say that no matter happens, it's been a pleasure meeting you all and working with you," Eve said, smiling at everyone.

"Likewise," Brian added, and everyone else nodded their agreement. Somehow an unspoken agreement passed between them that no matter what happened, they would stay in touch and always be friends, even if they only saw each other once a year.

"He's coming back," Jack said.

Stella shook her head. "That does not look good." Everyone knew what she meant; Boyd's expression was extremely grave.

Boyd went straight back to Grace, took her hand and squeezed it. He leant against her, resting his head on top of hers, as though he was drawing strength from her. Everyone was silent; they all wanted to know who got to keep working and who didn't, but at the same time, they didn't want to know. Eventually, Boyd looked up.

"I'm sorry, Sandra," he began, but never got to finish.

"Don't," Sandra said warningly. "I don't want to hear it from you." She started pacing. "Bastard! Why can't Strickland phone and give me the bad news himself? I swear I'm going to string him up by his bollocks when I see him!"

Both teams looked suitably upset, except for Grace, who was looking at Boyd strangely. There was a glint in his eyes that she would recognise anywhere, and she suddenly buried her head into his side to stop herself from laughing.

That action almost broke Boyd's resolve, but he kept a straight face as he looked from Brian to Jack to Gerry. "As I was saying," Boyd continued, "I'm sorry but you're all on holiday for a week. And when you get back to work, you should have your cushy office back."

Sandra glared at him. "What?" she asked flatly.

Grace shook her head. "You're evil, Boyd."

"The commissioner has given both teams a week off for such excellent work, and after that, you're expected back at work as are we," Boyd replied mildly. "Apparently there are more new - well, old - cases they need us to solve."

"You bastard!" Sandra exclaimed and went to swing for Boyd.

"You don't want to do that!" Gerry said, catching her arm.

"No, you don't," Brian agreed, taking hold of Sandra's other arm.

Jack nodded and stood between her and Boyd. "After all, he did get us a week off. And more work when we get back."

"If you don't let go of me, I'll break your wrists," Sandra warned them. Gerry and Brian let go and stepped back quickly.

Boyd started to look worried. "Spence!" he yelled, tightening his grip on Grace as though she would protect him.

"Sorry, buddy, you're on your own," Spencer replied.

"I'm with Spence," Stella added quickly before Boyd could shout for her.

"And I'm not a fighter," Eve said, holding her hands up.

"Grace," Boyd whined.

She shook her head and tried to disengage herself. "You brought this on yourself, Boyd."

"I'm sorry," Boyd said quickly as Sandra stopped in front of him. Grace had managed to wriggle out from under his arm and was now stood with the others, looking as amused as they did.

"I wish I had a camera," Spencer said, grinning. "Boyd - cowed by a woman."

"Spence." Boyd and Sandra spoke at the same time and in the same tone of voice, making the DI take a step backwards in worry.

The Superintendents smiled slightly at each other before Sandra's expression turned serious again. She took another step towards Boyd until they were practically nose to nose. "If you ever pull a stunt like that again, I will break your jaw," she told him quietly. "Or your neck. Whichever wants to be broken."

"That's not fair," Boyd replied.

Sandra smirked. "Why? Because you wouldn't hit a woman?"

"Exactly."

"It might make you behave yourself then."

"Have you finished?"

"No." Sandra stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Boyd's cheek firmly. "Thank you."

Boyd looked mildly surprised before smiling and replying, "You're welcome."

"So, if you two have finished trying to kill each other, maybe we can go and celebrate," Gerry said, rubbing his hands together.

"Great idea. First round's on Gerry, everyone," Spencer replied, grinning.

"First time for everything," Jack muttered.

Eve took hold of Gerry's hand. "Aww, are they picking on you?" she cooed.

"It's a hard life, Gerry, isn't it?" Brian asked with a laugh.

Grace shook her head and tried not to laugh as well. "Children."

Stella looked at her with wide eyes. "But you love us really, Mum."

That did it. Both teams began laughing and chuckling and then suddenly, everyone was embracing and kissing each other on the cheek.

"So, Gerry, where are you taking us for lunch?" Sandra asked, linking arms with Brian and Jack. Both looked shocked at the action, but neither complained. Stella slipped her arm through Spencer's, while Eve kept hold of Gerry's hand, and Grace took hold of Boyd's. Everyone knew displays of affection wouldn't be commonplace, because it wasn't in their natures, but for once, they'd found a group of people they could feel comfortable and relaxed around.

"I don't know," Gerry said. "Where's the nearest pub?"

"Are you the cheapest man on the planet?" Boyd asked.

"You pay for lunch for nine of us then," Gerry retorted.

Boyd just shrugged. "Okay. Where does everyone want to go? Italian, Greek, Indian, pub?"

"I fancy pub," Spencer replied, nodding firmly.

"Sounds good to me," Eve agreed."

Stella nodded. "Me too."

"I don't mind," Brian said, shrugging.

"Pub's fine with me," Jack added.

Boyd looked at Grace and Sandra, who both shrugged as well. "Pub lunch it is, then," Boyd said, smiling.

They all separated and piled into their respective cars. "I'll pay," Gerry said before they drove off.

"Nah, we'll all pay," Sandra replied, smiling.

"Or we could make it a regular thing," Spencer suggested. "Meet once a month or something. That way each of us can pay once."

"Do you think we could discuss this over lunch?" Stella asked. "And we can argue about who gets to pay when we've finished eating."

Boyd smiled. "That's the best idea anyone's had today."

TBC


	23. Kisses

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Well, Mary, the case is over and we've all been given a week off," Jack said, holding a tumbler of whisky in on hand. "I think Boyd had something to do with that, but I don't know how he managed it. 'Persuasion', I guess…. Yes, Mary, persuasion; he probably threatened the commissioner with something painful and permanent if he didn't grant both teams a holiday." Jack took a sip of his drink. "Well of course I agree with him. The commissioner's a prat, you know that…. What am I going to do this week? Not a lot; practice my golf, probably…. Of course I'll spend some time with you, love. The other team? They were…different, but in a good way." Jack took another drink. "Gerry's dating the scientist, Eve, and Boyd and Grace, the psychologist, got together during the case. I can see rough times ahead for them, Mary. I hope they get through it." He smiled. "Yes, I sorted things out with Sandra. I told you, remember? She wants me to help her organise the funeral for her mother….. Brian's the same as always, love; you know he never changes…. The others? Ah, you mean the kids. Well, they're not kids obviously, but they seem so young, Mary." Jack sighed and shook his head. "I was never that young…. Spencer and Stella, that's what they're called. Nice kids. They have a lot to put up with Boyd, but they seem to just handle it. I hope they enjoy the break."

Jack finished his drink and stood up, looking longingly at the ground in front of him. Mary's name was engraved on a flat piece of square stone, along with the year she died. Her ashes were buried underneath it, and it was surrounded by eight small lights, each embedded in the same shaped stone.

"I know, love, I miss you too," Jack said softly. "Sleep well, Mary."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

Spencer shook his head and leant forward. "What?" he shouted loudly, his voice barely a whisper over the music.

"I said are you okay?" Stella repeated, yelling back. "You don't seem to be enjoying yourself!"

Spencer shrugged. "Why wouldn't I be? All these beautiful women in very little clothing. Gorgeous company…."

Stella just laughed. "Flattery will get you nowhere."

"No, but I can try." Spencer grinned.

"Do you actually like clubbing?" she shouted.

"Yeah, of course I do!" Spencer looked around at the people surrounding him before shaking his head. "You want to get out of here?"

Stella nodded. "While I still have my hearing!"

Ten minutes later found them in a wine bar. Spencer groaned as he sat down. "I feel old."

"You're not old, Spence. Well, not *that* old," Stella added, sipping her drink. The glare she was given made her continue quickly. "Not compared to Boyd or Grace…."

"Someone should take the keys to the JCB off you," Spencer muttered, shaking his head. "You obviously don't need them."

"…Or Brian, Jack or Gerry. They are all older."

Spencer smiled. "I liked them. And Sandra too, but the way the guys do their job…."

"Giving you ideas?" Stella asked.

"Absolutely."

"I liked Brian."

"Not Gerry?"

Stella wrinkled her nose a little. "He belongs with Eve."

"I'll agree with that," Spencer said.

"Brian is…how do you say it?"

"Quirky, eccentric…bloody weird?" Spencer replied.

Stella smiled. "All of the above and more. He's a nice guy."

"Yeah. Yeah, he is." Spencer took a sip of his drink. "Nicer than me?"

Stella's smile grew into a grin. "Of course not."

Spencer nodded his approval. "Right answer."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"So how was work?" Esther asked as she put dinner in front of her husband.

"We've all got a week off before going back," Brian replied, poking his food as though he thought it was still alive.

"That's good."

"Good?" he exclaimed.

"Well, it'll be nice to have you at home for a while," Esther said mildly.

Brian stared at his wife. "Esther, I'll drive you crazy."

She smiled at him. "You do that anyway. How was it working with another team?"

Brian's expression softened instantly. "It was surprisingly easy. It was…fun. And Gerry's dating one of them."

"Gerry's met someone?" Esther asked, not really surprised or interested.

"I think it's serious."

Esther stared at her husband. "Really?" She was now both surprised *and* interested.

Brian nodded. "The scientist from the other cold case unit, Eve Lockhart."

"Oh. Is she nice?"

"She has a body farm," Brian replied.

"Oh." Esther finished eating and picked up their plates.

"I wonder how they're getting on," Brian muttered to himself.

"Who?" Esther yelled from the kitchen.

Brian sighed. "Gerry and Eve!" he shouted back.

"I'm sure they're fine, Brian. Don't fuss!"

"I think I'll just ring and make sure."

Esther looked into the dining room. "Brian," she said, her voice a low warning.

"I want to ask him about the funeral as well," Brian replied.

Esther studied her husband for a few moments before nodded. "Alright."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Yeah, we're fine, mate, thanks. How's Esther? Good. Give her my love. The funeral? I don't know, Brian. I mean, Sandra might not want us there. Yeah, true. Alright, I'll think about it. Now you're interrupting my evening, so sod off. Yeah, you too." Gerry laughed and shook his head as he put the phone down.

"Problem?" Eve asked.

Gerry shook his head again. "Brian checking everything's alright. He's like a mother hen at times."

Eve smiled. "You're all as bad as each other."

"He was also asking about the funeral. Sandra's mum," Gerry explained.

"Do you want to go?" Eve asked.

"I don't know if Sandra'll want us there."

"I think she will. You're her family, her friends; she'll need your support," Eve told him. "So, do you want to go to the funeral?"

Gerry nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

"Then go."

"You're not bothered?"

Eve looked at him for a moment before starting to laugh, cupping his face affectionately. "Why would I be? Sandra is your friend, and your boss. If anything was going to happen between you two, it would have happened already. Besides, you're not her type. Luckily for me."

Gerry tried to sulk. "I should be insulted."

Eve smiled and kissed him. "But you won't be."

"No, I won't. Listen, I'm just going to give Sandra a quick ring, check she's okay," Gerry said seriously.

Eve just nodded. "Okay. I'll go and warm the bed. Don't be long!"

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"Yes, Gerry, I'm fine, thank you," Sandra said into the phone, smiling. "Now bugger off and leave me to my evening. Yes, he is. Bye, Gerry."

"Problem?" Chris asked.

"Only an overprotective…whatever Gerry is," Sandra replied, waving her hand.

Chris smiled. "Colleague? Friend?"

"Pain in the arse?"

"That too."

"Like Brian and Jack?" Chris asked, amused.

"Yeah."

"And the other team?"

"I'd say we're all friends," Sandra replied thoughtfully. "I never thought I'd say this, but I enjoyed working with them. They're nice people."

"Gerry's dating one of them, isn't he? Eve?" Chris asked.

Sandra smiled. "You do pay attention," she said teasingly.

"Occasionally. And the other couple was…Grace and Boyd?" Sandra nodded. "Same name as your mother," Chris said softly.

"I know, but she's nothing like my mum," Sandra replied. "I mean, I loved my mum, but Grace is lovely."

"And Boyd?"

"He's…more like me," Sandra admitted ruefully. "Well, I'm more like him as he's older. He's alright, though, underneath it all. But I swear, if he hurts Grace…." She trailed off, but it was obvious that what would happen would be something extremely painful and permanent.

Chris was running his fingers through her hair and he smiled. "You really care about them, don't you?"

Sandra nodded. "Yeah, I do. I mean, at first I hated the idea of working with them, but we became…."

"Close? Good friends? Family?"

Sandra smiled. "All of the above."

"That's good."

"You don't think it's sad or depressing, only having friends from work?" Sandra asked.

Chris shook his head, moved his hand to her chin and gently forced her to look at him. "No, I don't," he said firmly. "I think it's good you have true friends; whether they're from work or not is irrelevant."

Sandra gazed at him and then leant forward to kiss him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

She glanced at her mobile. "Maybe I should just…."

Chris shook his head. "Leave Boyd and Grace be. If you need to focus on something, you could focus on me."

Sandra smiled. "I like the sound of that."

NT-WtD-NT-WtD-NT-WtD

"That's what I've been meaning to ask, Boyd," Grace said from her rather comfortable position of curled up on the couch, nestled into Boyd's side.

They had shared a pleasant dinner, where work wasn't discussed once and the phone never rang to disturb them…mainly because the mobiles had been switched off and Boyd had unplugged the landline. It was times like that Grace really liked Boyd.

"What?" he asked, one hand holding a glass of wine, the other arm draped around Grace's shoulders. "Nothing about the others, Grace. I'm sure they're fine."

"No, nothing like that. Besides, they'll all be worrying that you've reverted back to your usual yelling self by now."

Boyd grunted. "What did you want to ask?"

"What exactly was said in the conversation between you and the commissioner?"

Boyd smiled. "Nothing."

Grace tickled him in the ribs. "Boyd…," she said warningly.

Boyd laughed. "Okay. Well…."

*"Hello? Yes, sir," Boyd answered his mobile and started to walk away from both teams, out of ear shot.

"You've done commendably well, Peter," the commissioner said.

"Thank you, sir."

"And so have Superintendent Pullman's team. I hope you'll pass my compliments to them."

"I will, sir," Boyd replied. "It helped having two teams working on such a difficult case."

The commissioner stuttered a little. "Yes, well, excellent result."

"But you knew it was a difficult case, sir, didn't you?" Boyd carried on regardless.

"Now, Peter…," the commissioner began.

"No, you listen to me. If you wanted to shut one, or even both, of the teams down, you should have had the balls to just do," Boyd said, his voice surprisingly quiet. "You gave us a closed case that you knew the outcome of, just so we could find the same answer, giving you your excuse to close us down. But it didn't work, did it?"

"Boyd, remember you're talking to," the commissioner snapped.

"I can't forget! You're the sad bastard that gets his kicks out of pissing people about! You and Strickland are as bad as each other, and I hope you're happy with how much you've screwed us around. The next time either of you pulls a stunt like this, you won't have to fire either my team or Sandra's because we'll just walk. And then what would you be able to gloat over, eh? Low crime rate? Let's face it, sir, the cold case units are your and Strickland's claim to fame, never mind all that crap that we're a 'luxury'."

"Superintendent Boyd, if you carry on, I'll have no choice but to suspend you."

"Over what? Telling the truth? Exposing you for the lying bastard you are?" Boyd retorted, eternally glad Grace couldn't hear him. Although considering how she felt about the situation, she'd probably have helped him with the yelling. "No, sir, you won't do anything. Well, except for one thing."

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. "Like what?" the commissioner asked eventually, his tone sullen and petulant, like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"I want you to make sure we've both got work to do when we get back. It shouldn't be too difficult for you to manage."

"Get back?" the commissioner repeated.

"Yes, sir. You'll give Sandra her nice office back, as well as a week off for her and her team," Boyd said. "And a week off for myself and my team. I think we deserve it for getting such a good result, don't you, sir?"

"Yes, alright, Boyd," the commissioner said. "But if you ever talk to me like that again, I'll kick you out of the force without a second thought. Clear?"

"Yes, sir." The line went dead. "Stupid little shit."*

"Grace?" Boyd asked, a little concerned. There had been silence for a while since he finished his story, and now Grace was shaking. "You're angry I shouted, aren't you? Or disappointed?"

A muffled sound escaped from Grace, who had hidden her face completely in Boyd's shirt.

Boyd's glass stopped close to his lips, and he turned to look at the woman by his side. "Are you laughing, Grace?"

Grace shook her head quickly; the giggles that echoed around the room didn't agree with her action.

"Thanks! I stick my neck on the line for both teams, stand up to the commissioner, and you just laugh at me!"

Grace finally composed herself and sat up, although the indignant look on Boyd's face almost set her off again. "I'm not laughing at you. Well, not as such."

"Care to elaborate, Dr. Foley?" Boyd asked dryly.

"I just wish I could've heard it, that's all. It's about time someone took the commissioner, and Strickland, down a peg or two. Though I can imagine Strickland will get his ear bent the moment Sandra sees him."

Boyd smiled. "Now *that* would be worth seeing. Now what?" he asked. Grace was staring at him.

"Nothing."

"I've seen that look before, Grace."

"Thank you."

Boyd looked confused. "What for?"

"For looking after your team, and Sandra's. For proving to me you do have a heart and you know how to use it. You're a good man, Boyd."

He pulled a face. "Oh, Grace, please, stop."

Grace smiled and took his glass from him. She put one hand on his cheek and forced him to look at her. When he dead, she moved forward to kiss him. They had kissed before, and even though Boyd was no expert on women - or people in general - this felt different to him.

When they pulled apart, there was something in Grace's eyes that made Boyd's heart skip a beat.

"Grace, I…," he started to say, but she put her finger on his lips.

"Sshhh. You don't have to say anything. I know you're not good with words," she said, smiling. "I - I love you, Bo- Peter. And you don't have to say it back to me. I'm not going to throw a tantrum if you don't. And, well, if you *do* feel the same way, but can't say the words, you could show me."

Boyd smiled slowly. "I do believe, Dr. Foley, that you were stuttering, and now you're blushing."

"Boyd…." Grace's warning tone of voice was enough to convey a whole conversation at times.

"If I was younger, and without a bad back, I'd carry you upstairs right now. But as I'm not, and with a bad back, I can only do this." He stood and extended his hand.

Grace took it and stood as well. "Lead the way, Casanova."

"Grace!"

FIN


End file.
